TEHRAN - Lightning and flash floods caused by torrential rains have killed eight people across the country in the past nine days.

Seven people were killed by floods and another one was killed by lightning in 16 provinces, Mahdi Valipour, an official with the Iranian Red Crescent Society, said on Friday.

More than 200 rescue and relief groups are working in 61 counties affected by natural disasters, he noted.

The IRCS forces have provided relief for some 5,000 people, accommodating 835 ones in shelters and relocating 58 others to safe regions.

Rainfall extremes over the past three years slowly questioned the conception that Iran is experiencing a long-term drought and some of the experts announced that a wet spell will embrace the country.

So, some experts claimed that Iran has entered a period of a wet spell after experiencing dry spells over the past few decades, some others highly rejected the claim implying that the country faced a lack of rain by 50mm over the past 5 decades.

Heavy rainfalls since the start of summer have helped reduce water stress in the country, increasing the national average precipitation by three percent.

Rainfalls had decreased by 42 percent compared to the previous water year (starting September 23), but the recent rainfalls made for three percent of water shortage in the country, IRNA quoted Sadeq Ziaeian, the director of National Drought Warning and Monitoring Center, as saying.

This year, the country has experienced one of the hardest situations in terms of precipitation for the past 50 years, he noted.

Iran is ranked among the world’s arid countries with its annual precipitation levels at about one-third of the global average. 

More than 200 Iranian cities and a very larger number of villages, mostly in the central and southern parts, are water-stressed. 

MG