Iran’s lakes are vanishing: Satellite images show a deepening water crisis

For galore Iranians, the astir contiguous menace is nary longer conscionable war, but water.

Years of drought, falling rainfall and unsustainable h2o usage person pushed the state into terrible h2o stress, depleting reservoirs, rivers and groundwater reserves. The US-Israel warfare connected Iran has added further strain aft reports of harm to desalination plants, pipelines and different civilian h2o infrastructure successful the aboriginal weeks of the conflict.

Iran is classified by the World Resources Institute arsenic facing “extremely high” baseline h2o stress, utilizing much than 80 percent of its renewable h2o supplies each year.

In this ocular explainer, Al Jazeera breaks down Iran’s worsening h2o situation and what is driving it.

How Lake Urmia disappeared

One of the astir striking examples of Iran’s h2o situation tin beryllium seen from space.

A time-lapse show of Lake Urmia successful northwestern Iran shows however the largest saltwater water successful the Middle East, which covered astir 6,000sq km (2,300sq miles) successful the 1990s, shrunk to conscionable 581sq km (224sq miles), little than 10 percent of its erstwhile size.

A time-lapse presumption of Lake Urmia from 1990 to 2026 [Google Earth]

Consecutive droughts, cultivation h2o use, stream diversion, and groundwater extraction person transformed immense stretches of Lake Urmia into exposed brackish flats.

More than 60 dams built connected its feeder rivers choked disconnected inflows, portion farmers diverted h2o into irrigation channels and decades of groundwater extraction drained the aquifers below. Rising temperatures accelerated evaporation arsenic precipitation fell.

A presumption of Lake Urmia successful 2014 [Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images]

Iran’s increasing h2o deficit

To prolong its freshwater resources, a state indispensable replenish astatine slightest arsenic overmuch h2o arsenic it withdraws for agriculture, industry, and household use.

Iran has agelong been connected the incorrect broadside of that equation. Decades of dam construction, intensive farming, and groundwater extraction person pushed depletion acold beyond what rainfall tin replenish.

In 2025, Iran’s 92 cardinal radical consumed astir 100 cardinal cubic metres of water, astir 13 cardinal much than its renewable resources could provide.

Agriculture is by acold the largest user of h2o successful Iran, accounting for astir 91 percent of each withdrawals, compared with 7 percent for households and 2 percent for industry. Yet overmuch of that h2o is mislaid earlier it reaches crops, arsenic ageing and inefficient irrigation systems discarded a important stock of the country’s astir precious resource.

Disappearing dams astir Tehran

Iran is 1 of the world’s large dam-building countries, and has constructed hundreds of ample and tiny dams to store water, make electricity, and negociate shortages.

In caller years, dozens of reservoirs person dropped to highly debased levels, leaving respective to astir tally dry.

Before-and-after outer imagery of Lar Dam, Latyan Dam and Mamloo Dam, each clustered astir Tehran and the confederate slopes of the Alborz mountains and forming portion of the main h2o proviso strategy for the superior region, reveals however h2o levels person declined implicit clip arsenic drought and rising request strain Tehran’s h2o system.

Drought displacing thousands

Water scarcity is progressively reshaping wherever Iranians tin live.

As wells tally adust and farming becomes harder to sustain, galore families are leaving agrarian communities successful hunt of much unafraid livelihoods. According to Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, Iran’s vice president for Rural Development and Disadvantaged Regions, lone 38,000 of the country’s 69,000 villages stay inhabited, portion 31,000 villages person been abandoned.

The unit extends acold beyond abandoned settlements. According to Iran’s state-owned Water and Wastewater Company, astir 27,000 villages, location to much than 10 cardinal people, are presently experiencing h2o shortages. In total, much than 70 percent of Iran’s villages are facing immoderate signifier of h2o crisis.

Many migrants caput towards large cities specified arsenic Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, and Shiraz. Yet these cities are facing h2o pressures of their own. Home to much than 9 cardinal people, Tehran has seen increasing strain connected its h2o strategy arsenic drought and request proceed to rise.

The representation beneath shows however Iran’s colonisation is concentrated successful the occidental fractional of the country. Today, astir 75 percent of Iranians unrecorded connected little than 40 percent of the country’s onshore area, concentrating some radical and h2o request successful a comparatively tiny region.

The effects of h2o scarcity tin besides beryllium seen on the Zayandehrud River, erstwhile 1 of cardinal Iran’s astir important waterways.

Satellite imagery of Zayandehrud Dam reveals declining h2o levels upstream aft years of drought and overuse.

Further downstream, the consequences go disposable successful the bosom of Isfahan. The historical Allahverdi Khan Bridge (Si-o-Se Pol) was built implicit a stream that sustained the metropolis for centuries.

Today, residents progressively brushwood adust riverbeds beneath its arches arsenic sections of the Zayandehrud repeatedly tally dry.

The Si-o-se Pol (33-Bridge) humanities span successful 2017 [Thomas Schulze/Picture confederation via Getty Images]

An Iranian antheral stands connected the dried-up broadside of the Zayandehrud River arsenic the Si-o-se Pol (33-Bridge) humanities span is pictured successful the historical metropolis of Isfahan [Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images]

Only a tiny fraction from desalination

Desalination accounts for lone astir 3 percent of Iran’s h2o needs, a stark opposition to Gulf neighbours, which beryllium connected it for the bulk of their drinking water.

Most of Iran’s desalination plants are located on its confederate seashore connected the Gulf. As a result, desalination is mostly concentrated successful coastal cities, portion inland areas specified arsenic Tehran, Isfahan and astir cultivation regions trust connected different h2o sources.