Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has issued a stark public warning that the capital city of Tehran, home to over 10 million people, may face evacuation due to severe water shortages if adequate rainfall does not materialize by the end of the year. The President stated that authorities would be forced to begin water rationing between late November and early December. If the drought conditions persist even with rationing, he warned, the government would be left with no choice but to activate emergency plans that include the necessity of evacuating the sprawling megacity.
This unprecedented public declaration signals that the water crisis has moved from a technical and environmental problem into a full-blown political emergency. The severity is underscored by officials from the regional water company, who recently warned that the main reservoirs supplying the capital—including the Amir Kabir Dam—had only about two weeks’ worth of water remaining. Reservoir levels are at their lowest in decades, with storage around 250 million cubic metres, roughly half of what was recorded in the previous water year.The crisis is exacerbated by a combination of a 40% decline in precipitation this year compared to the long-term average, climate change, and decades of chronic mismanagement and overexploitation of groundwater resources, particularly for agriculture. While officials emphasize the need for residents to save 10% to 20% of consumption, the underlying lack of a credible, long-term supply-side plan highlights the political failure to address the structural causes of water scarcity, compounding public discontent.
