close button
Switch to Iranwire Light?
It looks like you’re having trouble loading the content on this page. Switch to Iranwire Light instead.
Provinces

Official: Zayanderud Dam Water Reserves are 70 Percent Depleted

June 20, 2022
OstanWire
1 min read
The dam provides a critical water supply to residents, farmers and industry in Isfahan
The dam provides a critical water supply to residents, farmers and industry in Isfahan

A year on from mass protests spurred by the water crisis in Iran, the Zayanderud dam is now at just 30 percent capacity with no prospect of being filled in the weeks to come, the director of Zayanderud Dam and Power Plant has warned. 

Mojtaba Mousavi Naeini told ISNA on Monday that the sudden hike in daytime temperatures, the near-total lack of rainfall in the springtime and the concurrent increase in consumption were partly to blame for worryingly low reserves at the dam, which primarily serves the city of Isfahan to the east.

As of Sunday, he said, the dam was storing just 366 million cubic meters of water and demand for the remainder was "unprecedented". In the coming months, he said, output would be higher than input and he could not guarantee reserves would be sufficient.

Isfahan suffers from some of the most critical regular water shortages in Iran. Last year and in spring 2022 farmers and locals held regular protests on the dried-up riverbed where it passes through the capital, demanding an end to the diversion of water away from the province. The Islamic Republic initially tolerated these demonstrations but eventually security forces responded with deadly force.

comments

World

Argentina on High Alert and Journalist Targeted in Wake of Iranian Plane Grounding

June 20, 2022
Florencia Montaruli
7 min read
Argentina on High Alert and Journalist Targeted in Wake of Iranian Plane Grounding