TEHRAN –Iranian Energy Ministry data indicates that currently 28.81 billion cubic meters of water is stored behind the dams across Iran, indicating that 57 percent of the capacity of the country’s dams is full.

Based on the mentioned data, in the previous year’s same period 39.68 billion cubic meters of water was stored behind the country’s dams.

The total capacity of Iran’s dam reservoirs currently stands at 50.5 billion cubic meters.

As reported by IRNA, from the beginning of the current water year (late September 2020) up to May 22, the total volume of water inflow to the reservoirs of the country's dams stood at 25.29 billion cubic meters, 47 percent less than the figure for the last year’s same period.

Last year the water inflow to the country’s dam reserves stood at 47.58 billion cubic meters in the same period.

According to the Energy Ministry data, compared to the figures for the previous water year, the volume of water outflow from the country's dams has also decreased by 35 percent to stand at 23.63 billion cubic meters.

This is while the water consumption in the capital Tehran reached 3.543 billion cubic meters on May 31, according to the ministry data.

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.

In late May, Iran’s Deputy Energy Minister for electricity affairs Homayoun Haeri s announced that power consumption in the country had risen 7,000-8,000 megawatts (MW) since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21), as compared to the same period of time in the past year.

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