Tehran suffering worst drought in 50 years: water official

Iran's capital is suffering its worst drought in half a century, a water resources official said Tuesday, citing a 97 percent drop in monthly rainfall compared with last year.

Tehran has had 0.4 millimetres of rain since 23 September, compared with 14.3 mm over the same period in 2020, said Mohammad Shahriari, deputy director of the company that supplies the region.

"Groundwater and surface water are at a critical state and there has not been a similar drought for the past 50 years," he was quoted as saying by Iran's ISNA news agency.

The five dams supplying water to the capital are at less than a third of their capacity, holding just 477 million cubic metres (under 17 billion cubic feet) of water instead of two billion cubic metres.

In September last year, the reserves held 729 million cubic metres of water.

Water consumption in the agricultural sector has gone up by 14 percent compared with last year, and by eight percent for industry.

Hydroelectricity generation has dropped by 40 percent in the past six months, according to Shahriari.

Tehran is home to around nine million people.

In July, deadly protests broke out in the drought-hit southwestern province of Khuzestan after people took to the streets to vent their anger over water shortages.