Tehran taps run dry as water crisis deepens across Iran

[Delvianna]

The head of Tehran’s Regional Water Company said that water levels had fallen 43% from last year, leaving the Amir Kabir Dam at just 8% of capacity.​

Iran is grappling with its worst water crisis in decades, with officials warning that Tehran, a city of more than 10 million, may soon be uninhabitable if the drought gripping the country continues.

President Masoud Pezeshkian has cautioned that if rainfall does not arrive by December, the government must start rationing water in Tehran.

"Even if we do ration and it still does not rain, then we will have no water at all. They (citizens) have to evacuate Tehran," Pezeshkian said on November 6.

Iran drought continues, Tehran to evacuate if no rain falls | The Jerusalem Post

The head of Tehran’s Regional Water Company said that water levels had fallen 43% from last year, leaving the Amir Kabir Dam at just 8% of capacity.

www.jpost.com

If I was a Christian in Iran, I'd leave. That sounds like judgement does it not?

 

[PloverWing]

That sounds like judgement does it not?

Maybe, or maybe climate change, or maybe bad policies about managing Iran's limited water supply, or some combination of these.

 

[Delvianna]

Maybe, or maybe climate change, or maybe bad policies about managing Iran's limited water supply, or some combination of these.

So I just googled. In this year alone, Iran has received 5.6 inches of rain, Georgia has received 45-50 inches of rain. That's an insane difference. I'm not saying water mismanagement isn't a factor, but geeze... 5.6 vs 45??

 

[PloverWing]

So I just googled. In this year alone, Iran has received 5.6 inches of rain, Georgia has received 45-50 inches of rain. That's an insane difference. I'm not saying water mismanagement isn't a factor, but geeze... 5.6 vs 45??

Some of this is going to be natural climate. Much of Iran is naturally fairly arid (or so Wikipedia tells me ). In the comparison, I don't know whether you mean Georgia the state or Georgia the country. The US Atlantic coast typically gets lots of rainfall in most places. I know less about Georgia the country, but I think its climate is also naturally less desert-y than Iran.

A better comparison might be a place like Arizona, much of which is naturally arid.

People can live in arid places if there's a source of water and they use the water carefully, but if there's a drought, they're more vulnerable than wet coastal areas are. Droughts can be a judgment from God, hypothetically, but I'm more inclined to attribute them to natural causes. I don't think Arizona is especially sinful, for example.

 

[Delvianna]

Some of this is going to be natural climate. Much of Iran is naturally fairly arid (or so Wikipedia tells me ). In the comparison, I don't know whether you mean Georgia the state or Georgia the country. The US Atlantic coast typically gets lots of rainfall in most places. I know less about Georgia the country, but I think its climate is also naturally less desert-y than Iran.

A better comparison might be a place like Arizona, much of which is naturally arid.

People can live in arid places if there's a source of water and they use the water carefully, but if there's a drought, they're more vulnerable than wet coastal areas are. Droughts can be a judgment from God, hypothetically, but I'm more inclined to attribute them to natural causes. I don't think Arizona is especially sinful, for example.

Fair point! Okay, so Arizona got 7.49 so far this year. But with this in mind, wouldn't God bless a nation with more rain even if it was a desert if they were following him? Like for example, the nation of Chile is 70-89% Christian and their desert Atacama, is known as the worlds driest desert but this year, it bloomed. (link)

 

[ChubbyCherub]

I read on the news that governments have admitted to geoengineering to cause drought, specifically, so this may be the case here. Who can say?

 

[Bob Crowley]

Fair point! Okay, so Arizona got 7.49 so far this year. But with this in mind, wouldn't God bless a nation with more rain even if it was a desert if they were following him? Like for example, the nation of Chile is 70-89% Christian and their desert Atacama, is known as the worlds driest desert but this year, it bloomed. (link)

I don't think we can use a one-off event like the Atacama desert blooming as a long term change in Chile's fortunes.

Australia is technically Christian, but we're also the second driest continent after Antartica in terms of rainfall, as there is plenty of water in Antarctica, but it is frozen. The average thickness of Antartic ice is 2.6 kilometres (about 1.6 miles).

Every so often Lake Eyre in Australia's centre fills up due to floods in the north, and it then becomes Australia's largest lake, albeit saline. But it then proceeds to dry out again. Most of the time it's empty, although it's deepest sections are about 15 metres below sea level.

Lake Eyre - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The lake is most often empty, filling partially mostly when flooding occurs upstream in Channel Country. On the rare occasions that it fills completely (only three times between 1860 and 2025), it is the largest lake in Australia, covering an area of up to 9,500 km2 (3,668 sq mi). When the lake is full, it has the same salinity as seawater, but becomes hypersaline as the lake dries up and the water evaporates. To the north of the lake is the Simpson Desert.

It would be false thinking to assume that because the land around the lake is blooming, Australia is having a Christian revival. In any case, the floods that cause the filling do a lot of damage when the water surges through Channel Country.

Iran's problems are deep seated. One is a prolonged drought, which might be part of a judgement, but it could also be due to climate change. Flawed water management policies are part of the cause with too much water allocated to an inefficient agricultural sector, and useless dams built all over the place.

If Tehran does have to be evacuated, it is going to cause a lot trouble on Iran's borders.