Three-minute read
Tehran, the capital of Iran, is facing one of the gravest water shortages in its modern history. With over 20 million residents, including a large floating population, the city now stands on the precipice of a full-scale water emergency. What may look like a natural consequence of reduced rainfall and climate change is, in truth, the culmination of decades of mismanagement, corruption, and misguided policies by the clerical regime—one that has turned one of the world’s most water-stressed countries into a textbook case of environmental failure.
Despite alarmist headlines in state-controlled media warning of depleted dams, vanishing groundwater, and catastrophic land subsidence, officials have failed to acknowledge the true scope of the regime’s role in this crisis. In a revealing interview with Ham Mihan, Issa Bozorgzadeh, spokesperson for the regime’s Water Industry, insisted on the need for “local water governance” but evaded the root of the crisis: decades of centralized mismanagement and unchecked over-extraction. His call for “water surgery,” while admitting the country’s entry into a period of “water imbalance,” only skirts around the regime’s own sabotage of sustainable planning.
#Iran News in Brief
Following a four-day #water cutoff in the Alard neighborhood of Robat Karim, #Tehran Province, a group of residents gathered on Thursday evening, August 10, protesting against the ongoing water shortages.https://t.co/pKw09KDPhP pic.twitter.com/tdPOZn7gkY— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) August 11, 2023
A Crisis Fueled by Poor Governance and Corruption
Iran’s water disaster is not just about nature—it’s about the decisions of men. An exposé by Donyaye Eghtesad documented 25 state-driven blunders that have systematically pushed the country into hydrological bankruptcy. Among them: building heavy steel plants in the heart of drought-stricken regions, expanding rice paddies and sugarcane fields in desert provinces, and issuing permits for thousands of illegal wells.
In Tehran alone, 30% of the city’s water is lost due to leakages in aging infrastructure, yet the state continues to pour billions into opaque infrastructure projects while neglecting basic water efficiency upgrades. Meanwhile, over-extraction of groundwater has led to alarming land subsidence rates—up to 36 centimeters per year in some areas—creating irreversible geological damage.
And while officials point fingers at individual usage, the bulk of water mismanagement lies with state-favored industries and unregulated agricultural expansions. The government’s notorious program to legalize 30,000 illegal wells in 2010, under the pretext of rural development, has only accelerated groundwater depletion.
#IranProtests: Isfahan Farmers Demand Water Rights Amid Intensifying Crisishttps://t.co/fswuvGMJpB
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) April 4, 2025
Climate Change Is Real, But So Is State Neglect
While rainfall has indeed declined—Tehran received just 135 mm this year instead of the expected 202 mm—it is the regime’s shortsighted policies that have turned seasonal dryness into existential drought. Despite this, regime officials insist Iran is on a path to “development,” as recently claimed by Commander Ahmadreza Radan in Defa Press, who absurdly praised “infrastructure progress” in water-stressed regions like Sistan and Baluchestan.
Experts disagree. A significant body of research has found Iran’s centralized, opaque water governance system to be at odds with the adaptive, decentralized management models adopted in countries like Spain, Australia, and the Netherlands. Yet Tehran remains trapped in a pattern where ideological dogma overrides environmental realities.
The social consequences of #Iran's water crisis are dire, affecting livelihoods, #health, and overall well-being of an entire nation. 7/https://t.co/OwzuVf1nx1
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 5, 2023
The Cost of Obedience
In the clerical dictatorship, water isn’t just a resource—it’s a political commodity. Allocation often follows lines of regime loyalty, not need. While elite neighborhoods in northern Tehran enjoy continuous water access, poorer districts and neighboring towns face rationing or dry taps. This unequal access adds another layer of injustice in a country already divided by class and privilege.
Calls for reform are growing louder, even within the state media. “The government has been part of the problem,” Bozorgzadeh admitted in an unusually candid moment. But acknowledging failure is not the same as transformation. Without structural changes—legal accountability, independent oversight, and decentralization—the country will continue its descent into water chaos.
#Iran Has 5 Years Before It Reaches Its Peak of Water Crisis
On 2nd January, a gathering was held in Razavi Khorasan, in which the current water situation in Iran’s east was discussed, and some very disturbing facts were revealed.https://t.co/jsOxLByd2z pic.twitter.com/lHZvG7zjIN— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) January 12, 2019
A National Reckoning Approaches
Tehran’s water crisis is a microcosm of Iran’s broader governance failure. What looms is not merely a shortage of water, but a collapse of trust in institutions that have repeatedly failed to protect the public good. Water, like air, is a common right. When a regime can no longer deliver that, the legitimacy of its rule evaporates faster than its shrinking reservoirs.
The time for cosmetic measures and blame games is over. If the regime cannot rescue Iran’s water future, it may find itself drowning in a crisis of its own making.