TEHRAN - Water inflow into the Iranian dams from the beginning of the current water year (late September 2020) up to September 9, 2021, has decreased 47 percent compared to the previous year’s same period, according to Iran Water Resources Management Company’s data.

As IRNA reported, the total volume of water inflow to the reservoirs of the country's dams in the mentioned period reached 29.15 billion cubic meters, while the figure stood at 55.31 billion cubic meters in the previous year’s same period.

According to the mentioned data, the total volume of water stored behind the country’s dams stood at 20.2 billion cubic meters on September 9, while the figure was reported to be 28.5 billion cubic meters last year; this indicates that the total volume of water behind the country’s dams has also decreased by 30 percent year on year.

The capacity of Iran’s dam reservoirs currently stands at 50.5 billion cubic meters, so according to the mentioned data, only 40 percent of the total capacity of the dams is full.

The volume of water outflow from the country's dams has also decreased by 34 percent compared to the figures for the previous water year to stand at 36.23 billion cubic meters.

The sudden increase in temperature in Iran and the decline of rainfalls across the country have caused severe drought in the current year so that the energy ministry is implementing new programs for managing water and electricity consumption.

Some experts believe that the current year is one of Iran’s driest years in the last 50 years, and the latest report released by the National Center for Drought Monitoring confirms this claim.

Out of a total of 183 currently operational dams across Iran, 52 are related to the Caspian Sea catchment area, 12 are based in the Urumieh basin, 68 dams are located in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman watersheds, 34 dams are in the Central Plateau, 11 dams are in Sarakhs catchment basin, and another six dams are located across the eastern boundary basin (Hamoun).

EF/MA