Satellite imagery shows Tehran’s accelerating water crisis

Tehran is experiencing an unprecedented water crisis. Satellite imagery analysis shows that key reservoirs that feed the capital are far below their typical seasonal variation. The Iranian president has warned that Iran has “no choice” but to move the location of the capital due to the water crisis. In the short term, water rationing has been imposed on some neighborhoods, and authorities may have to evacuate residents from Tehran. This crisis is driven by mounting demand for water, a historic drought, and persistent mismanagement. The Iranian government faces no easy way out, as necessary reforms would undercut the regime’s political economy and could risk triggering broad social unrest.

Tehran’s worsening water crisis represents the chronicle of a dearth foretold. Relentlessly mounting demands, rising environmental pressures, and persistent policy deficiencies have long converged to impose unsustainable strains on the city’s water resources. However, as the capital navigates the current crisis, these underlying drivers of continuing water insecurity will remain.

Tehran lies in Iran’s central Markazi basin, a region encompassing over half the country’s land and the bulk of its population, but holding less than one-third of its freshwater resources. Tehran itself has doubled in size since the Islamic Revolution, growing from 4.9 million people in 1979 to 9.7 million today. It is projected to add another million inhabitants by 2035. Typically wealthier than their rural compatriots, urban residents demand and can afford more water-intensive services, such as dishwashers and washing machines. Tehran’s water use has risen even more sharply than its population, climbing from 346 million cubic meters (m³) per year in 1976 to 920 million m³ in 2001 to some 1.2 billion m³ now.

Read more at Center for Strategic and International Studies