A historic drought in Iran could make its capital city Tehran reach “Day Zero” within two weeks, according to state media. Day Zero is the term signifying when the main source of drinking water runs dry and nothing comes out of faucets. As of November 6, one of the five dams that supplies Tehran was at only eight percent of its capacity, enough for two weeks.
The Siosepol Bridge in Isfahan, Iran. A historic drought across the country could make the city of Tehran reach “Day Zero” within about two weeks, according to the state media. | Credit: Seiiedali/Creative Commons
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, reportedly said that if it doesn’t rain by late November, Tehran, a city of ten million people, will have to ration water. If there’s no rain after that, they will have to evacuate the city. Mismanagement and overexploitation of water resources as well as climate change are said to be the cause of the shortages.
The possibility of a Day Zero occurring in other parts of the world was the subject of a new study by researchers in South Korea. The authors write that regions along the Mediterranean Sea, parts of North America, and southern Africa could see shortages arriving as early as this or next decade, and they could last longer. Cape Town, South Africa, faced a complete shutdown of its water in 2018, which was avoided by severe restrictions like limiting people to just a few liters a day.
The authors say that solutions must come from policy makers prioritizing smart management and modernizing leaky infrastructure as well as from people using water more responsibly.
The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
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