Iran Faces Worst Drought in a Decade, Evacuation Planned

Iran’s capital, Tehran, with a population of nearly 10 million, is considering evacuating its residents amid its worst drought in decades.

The country’s lack of rainfall, low precipitation, and rapidly depleting dams threaten to leave its water supplies running dry in just a matter of weeks.

The Amir Kabir dam northwest of Tehran, one of the five reservoirs that provides drinking water for the capital city, is at 8% of its capacity, Iran’s National Weather Forecasting Center of the Meteorological Organizations says that its rainfall across the country has decreased by about 89% compared to the long-term average, making this year’s Autumn its driest in the past 50 years. Additionally, snow cover has reduced to 98.6% nationwide compared to last year.

The lack of rain means its reservoirs are now at critical levels – the number of dams with less than 5% of reservoir capacity has increased from 8 to 32, spreading the water crisis across the entire country.

Prolonged, extreme dry conditions increase the risk of flash floods, as droughts reduce the soil’s ability to absorb water. On 17 November, after months of prolonged droughts, rainfall caused floods in some parts of Western Iran (Rainfall causes, 2025).

Iran’s severe water crisis has driven towns and villages to organise “rain prayers”, with their faces turned towards shrines and mosques as they petitioned for rain. However, some Iranians look to other causes for the severe drought and water scarcity. Reuters reports that mismanagement, illegal well drilling and inefficient agricultural practices have contributed to the crisis, which authorities say has also been intensified by climate change.

Desperate measures

The looming threat of day zero- the day when Iran’s water taps run dry- prompted the government to perform cloud seeding operations – a process used in Iran for years, in which chemicals are dispersed into clouds to stimulate the release of moisture as rain. The UAE has also used this technique in recent years to help address its water shortage. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reports that cloud seeding was conducted in the Lake Urmia basin in the country’s northwest.

But cloudseeding is only a stopgap solution and is not expected to solve the country’s water crisis. “In addition to cloud seeding’s heavy cost, the amount of rainfall it produces is nowhere near what is needed to solve our water crisis,” Sahar Tajbakhsh, head of Iran’s Meteorological Organisation, told state TV on Sunday (Rainfall causes, 2025).

Meanwhile, Tehran residents are implementing some water rationing, as water pressure is restricted after midnight. Suppose the rain continues to delay and reservoirs keep falling to critical levels. In that case, residents of Tehran will have no choice but to evacuate south by mid-December, according to Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian (Wintour, 2025).

Water Scarcity Solutions in the Middle East

Due to its arid climate, water scarcity is a significant problem in the Middle East. Countries in the region are among the most water-stressed in the world, facing limited freshwater resources and high water demand driven by population growth and development.

There are many solutions to address water scarcity in the region, and some Middle Eastern countries, such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Kuwait, are already implementing them. These water-scarcity solutions include desalination, water recycling or re-use, water conservation, use of water-efficient technologies like the drip irrigation system invented by Israel, and reducing water losses in the network.

Iran can learn significantly from neighbouring Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, which face similar arid climates but have approached water scarcity with massive investment, technology, innovation, and policy reforms.