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As Iran grapples with another scorching summer in 2025, the country’s critical infrastructure failures have moved beyond mere inconvenience to become a source of acute public suffering and high-level political panic. In recent parliamentary sessions and official statements, regime insiders have openly admitted to decades of mismanagement that have pushed the nation’s water and power grids to the point of collapse, sparking fears within the establishment that widespread social unrest is imminent.
While officials attempt to deflect blame onto drought conditions, their own testimonies reveal a story of deep-seated corruption, strategic neglect, and financial incompetence that has left millions of Iranians without reliable access to water and electricity.
A Humanitarian Crisis in Real Time
The daily reality for ordinary Iranians, particularly outside the capital, is increasingly dire. In Sistan and Baluchestan province, where temperatures have soared past 50 degrees Celsius, residents endure severe power cuts during peak heat. Farhad Shahraki, a member of the regime’s parliament, described the situation in stark terms during a session on September 2, 2025. He labeled the act of cutting electricity during dust storms exceeding 100 kilometers per hour as a “crime” and a “flagrant violation of citizens’ fundamental rights.” He warned that the “structural discrimination” was fueling social discontent and migration.
#Iran Witnesses Continued Protests Against Power and Water Outages, Exposing a Regime in Crisishttps://t.co/vSaxACIn0g
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 23, 2025
The crisis extends directly into the healthcare system. The Jahan Sanat newspaper reported recently that frequent power outages pose a direct threat to patient lives. Hospital equipment, from life support machines in intensive care units to operating room technology, is critically dependent on stable electricity. Even when backup generators are available, the potential delay in activation during an emergency can have catastrophic consequences.
Across the country, essential sectors are grinding to a halt. Farmers report power cuts to irrigation wells for up to five hours daily. In major urban centers, including Tehran, Isfahan, and Hormozgan, severe “water stress” and prolonged water outages have become routine, disrupting daily life and commerce. As one parliamentarian, Ismail Hosseini, noted, the blackouts create “social dissatisfaction” and pose a “serious threat to the continuation of economic enterprises.”
Why #Iran Is Running Out of Water, Power — and Patiencehttps://t.co/9ZghlJCNpO
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 13, 2025
Confessions of Systemic Failure and Corruption
During heated internal debates, regime officials have dispensed with excuses and pointed fingers at systemic rot. Energy Minister Abbas Ali-Abadi, summoned before parliament on September 2, admitted that over 15,000 megawatts of the country’s power plant capacity are “worn out” and have effectively lost their useful life. In a stunning admission of long-term neglect, Ali-Abadi confirmed that during the entire period of the Sixth Development Plan, “no guaranteed purchase contracts for the construction of new power plants were signed.”
The root cause, according to the minister, is not environmental but economic: a severe “financial imbalance” that prevents the government from paying contractors and investors to maintain or build infrastructure.
#Iran's Economic Collapse Deepens as 80% Face Poverty, Blackouts Worsen, and Regime Braces for Unresthttps://t.co/X0aF4AqFgG
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 25, 2025
This admission of dysfunction was echoed by Mohammad Jafar Ghaem Panah, Deputy Executive to regime President Masoud Pezeshkian. In a state media interview on August 31, 2025, Ghaem Panah acknowledged that the crisis is the culmination of “40-plus years” of mismanagement. He cited the uncontrolled expansion of Tehran “without thinking about its water supply” as a prime example. Panah further linked the crisis to the regime’s chronic economic woes, stating that inflation is rooted in a massive budget deficit caused by a “large, low-efficiency government,” where “about 80 percent of the country’s public budget is spent on government costs.”
Furthermore, hints of high-level corruption emerged in parliament when MP Abbas Bigdeli demanded to know why the Ministry of Energy refuses to crack down on large-scale illegal cryptocurrency mining operations that siphon off vast amounts of electricity. Bigdeli pointedly remarked on the failure to act against operators “who it is not clear who they are connected to,” implying protection by powerful factions within the regime.
Key Economic and Social Crises in 2024
– Gas Shortages: Severe disruptions caused blackouts, halted industries, and forced closures across provinces.
– Power Outages: Blackouts due to mismanagement and #IRGC’s illicit Bitcoin mining
– Currency Depreciation: Rial hit a record low… pic.twitter.com/sB0iWzFn1Y— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) January 1, 2025
Fear of Insurrection and the Resort to Repression
The regime’s primary concern is not solving the crisis but containing the public anger it generates. The parliamentary debate on September 2 grew so chaotic, with members shouting over one another, that Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was forced to turn the session private, away from public view. MPs explicitly warned that the situation threatens “national security” and is “making people angry.”
The regime’s strategy for managing this self-inflicted disaster remains rooted in repression, not resolution. President Pezeshkian’s deputy, Ghaem Panah, made this clear when discussing public criticism online. He stated plainly: “If we feel at some point that the enemy is misusing our internet space, well, the internet can be limited.”
For the Iranian people, the blackouts and water shortages are daily reminders of a government that has prioritized political survival and funding regional proxies over national well-being for decades. This frustration is manifested in protests happening across Iran over blackouts, in which citizens call out regime officials for not addressing their most basic needs.
The admissions from officials confirm that the infrastructure decay is irreversible without addressing the root cause, which is the regime itself. As the regime’s leaders openly express fear of public reprisal, the connection between the fight for basic utilities and the broader demand for regime change becomes clearer every day.