Storage dwindles in Mashhad, home to 4 million people, as country struggles with drought

Mashhad, home to around 4 million people and Iran’s holiest city, relies on four dams for its water supply. Esmaeilian said consumption in the city had reached about “8,000 litres per second, of which about 1,000 to 1,500 litres per second is supplied from the dams”.

Authorities in Tehran warned over the weekend of possible rolling cuts to water supplies in the capital amid what officials call the worst drought in decades. The Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has cautioned that without rainfall before winter, even Tehran could face evacuation.

In the capital, five major dams supplying drinking water are at “critical” levels, with one empty and another at less than 8% of capacity, officials say.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      1·
      7 hours ago

      thirsty crops in the wrong places,

      kagis

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_Iran

      Wheat, rice, and barley are the country’s major crops.

      Rice: Iran’s total rice production stands at 2.2 million tons per annum whereas annual consumption is about three million tons (2008)…Rice is mostly produced in northern Iran.

      I can’t find a rice production map for Iran, but I’m assuming that that’s around Tehran, which is in northern Iran.

      Yeah, rice paddies seem like a bad idea unless you’re a pretty wet place. That being said, we grow some in California, which is also pretty dry. But we also aren’t that short.

    • StinkyFingerItchyBum@lemmy.caEnglish
      61·
      12 hours ago

      Its more than just Tehran, it’s a very great many places all at once, all over the world. It’s more than just politics or policy. It’s more than just climate. The fundamental problem is growth. We outgrew our resouces and groundwater, as well as surface water is just one facet of what’s driven us over the edge. This is our Wile E Coyote moment.

      We are many things, sustainable is not one of them.

      • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        51·
        11 hours ago

        The fact that natural, fundamental resources like food and water are also governed by profit motives does not help. It’s not fair to say that “we” as humanity are not sustainable - datacenters guzzling water during a climate emergency aren’t. Growing food only to be on display on a supermarket fridge and then thrown out isn’t. Government subsidies for burning wood for power aren’t.

        • StinkyFingerItchyBum@lemmy.caEnglish
          1·
          11 hours ago

          Yes, but no. You can fiddle and fart around the edges and eliminate enormous waste and save untold lives as well as prevent despair and deprivation -FOR A TIME .

          The root of our predicament is the sum total of our dipshittery. It is cumulative. Yes stopping AI guzzling water and energy we don’t have to spare would be great, but alone it is not enough.

          To quote the immortal Depeche Mode:

          • Everything counts in large amounts.
          • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            1·
            11 hours ago

            Yeah, of course. It’s not those things directly, it’s the “culture” that makes it something normal.

    • WanderingThoughts@europe.pubEnglish
      2·
      15 hours ago

      the drought is real, but so are awful water management, subsidised waste, thirsty crops in the wrong places, and political appointments that put loyalty above expertise

      That’s certainly not exclusive to Iran. Other places will have the same issue sooner or later.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlEnglish
      86·
      16 hours ago

      Too bad they need to buy rockets to defend themselves against Israel and the US and don’t have money because of sanctions put on them by said countries.