TEHRAN – Iran’s deputy energy minister says currently 54 percent of the capacity of the country’s dams has been filled and the rest is kept for flood management, IRIB reported on Saturday.

Speaking on the sidelines of an exhibition in Tehran, Ghasem Taghizadeh Khamesi expressed hope that considering the recent heavy snowfall, the country won’t be facing any water shortage in the upcoming hot seasons.

“Before the recent snowfall, we have had five to even 50 percent water shortage in 20 provinces of the country; the recent snowfall has helped improve the condition, but we are still facing a crisis in some places,” he said.

According to the official, condoling the surface waters resulted from snowfall is easier than rain and the energy ministry would have more time to properly manage these water resources.

Severe snowfall along with snowstorms have been reported in several north and northwestern provinces of Iran over the past few days.

Massive snowstorm barreled across several provinces namely Hamedan, Markazi, Lorestan, Gilan, Qazvin, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Ilam and West Azarbaijan.

Last year, the volume of water behind the country’s dams went so down that the country faced serious problems regarding power generation by hydro-electric power plants. 

The current water year, however, kicked off with great rainfalls across the country which even caused some floods in northern and eastern provinces.

EF/MA