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·
    6 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.