TEHRAN – Water storage in the dams of the Tehran Province has declined more than 40 percent in the current water year (started in September 2021) compared to the previous year, an official with the Water Organization of Tehran said.

According to Mohammad Shahriari, currently, 412 million cubic meters (mcm) of water is stored behind the five dams supplying water to the capital, 179 mcm less than the previous year’s same period in which 691 mcm of water was stored behind the province’s dams, IRIB reported.

Referring to the 70-percent increase in rainfall in Tehran province, Shahriari said: "Since the beginning of the current water year, 24.7 mm of rainfall has occurred in Tehran, while the figure was 14.3 mm in the last rainy year."

The official noted that Tehran’s average rainfall in the mentioned period is five percent less than the average figure for the long term.

He stated that the inflow to the Tehran Province’s dams has decreased by 37 percent since the beginning of this water year compared to the same period last year, adding: “The rainfall in Tehran during this period has added three to four million cubic meters of water to the dam reserves, while the deficit of Tehran dams is 279 million cubic meters.”

Shahriari had previously said Iran’s capital is suffering its worst drought in half a century.

“Groundwater and surface water are at a critical state and there has not been a similar drought for the past 50 years,” he was quoted as saying by ISNA in early November.

According to the World Meteorological Organization's multiannual forecast, in the next five years, Iran’s average rainfall will decline by 75 percent, and the temperature rises by 50-75 percent compared to the long-term average.

A large part of the country has been hit by severe drought during the past 12 months. Forecasts indicate that Iran will not have significant rainfall in the remaining months of the current water year, so that, the country faces severe to very severe drought in most parts of the country.

EF/MA