Tehran: The Iranian authorities urged residents to limit water consumption while the country is struggling with serious shortages in the middle of an ongoing heat wave, local media announced on Sunday.
The water shortage is a major problem in Iran, in particular in arid provinces in the south of the country, with shortages charged to mismanagement and the overexploitation of underground resources, as well as to the growing impact of climate change.
On Saturday, the National Meteorological Service said that Iran had so far lived its hottest week of the year, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius in certain regions.
Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani announced in an article on X on Sunday that the province of Tehran would observe a public holiday on Wednesday due to the current heat wave.
“In light of continuous extreme heat and the need to keep water and electricity on Wednesday … was declared a vacation in the province of Tehran,” she wrote.
Temperatures in Tehran reached 40 ° C on Sunday, with a new increase to 41 ° C forecasts for Monday, according to weather reports.
The president of the Tehran municipal council, Mehdi Chamran, urged people to “keep the water to avoid reductions in supplies”, according to the news agency Isna.
Iran authorities have launched similar calls in recent days, asking residents of several provinces to limit the use of water.
The Provincial Society for Water Management Téhéran has called to reduce the use “at least 20%” to help facilitate shortages.
In a statement, he said that “the dams of dams providing water to Tehran are currently at their lowest level of a century”, after years of constant drop in precipitation.
Javan, a conservative newspaper, reported on Saturday that the authorities had reduced the water supply to certain parts of the capital in order to mitigate the crisis, leading to “water failures from 12 to 18 hours” in certain regions.
The Minister of Energy Abbas Aliabadi apologized on Sunday for a reduction in water supplies, saying that this decision has just managed the resources “.
