Iran's Capital Faces Water Shortage As Less Water Flows Into Dams
Water inflow into Tehran dams has decreased by about 27 percent since the start of the wet season, in Iran which started in November.
Water inflow into Tehran dams has decreased by about 27 percent since the start of the wet season, in Iran which started in November.
Mohammad-Reza Bakhtiari, the managing director of Tehran province Water and Wastewater Company, said on Saturday that input of the five dams around the capital has decreased to over 620 million cubic meters, while the figure was about 855 million cubic meters in the same period last year.
He added that the current volume of water reserve in Amir Kabir, Latian, Lar, Taleghan and Mamlu dams is 97, 60, 67, 232 and 71 million cubic meters, respectively.
According to Bakhtiari, rainfall was also down 31 percent from the beginning of the wet season to 164.1 millimeters, down from 218.9 millimeters in the same period last year.
Head of Iran's Geological Survey and Mineral Explorations Organization, Alireza Shahidi, has recently said that the country is in a 30-year drought cycle, noting that the dry spell started about 10 to 20 years ago and now its effects are more observable.
In 2021, large-scale water protests took place in two important provinces, Khuzestan and Esfahan, with several people killed and hundreds injured by security forces.
As drought persists, more underground water is exploited for irrigation, depleting natural reservoirs formed during thousands of years. However, politicians and experts say that there are no consistent government plans to deal with the water crisis, which can result in mass migration of millions of people in the next ten years.
In a note published Friday on a Telegram channel run by his supporters, Meysami said he will not end his hunger strike, which he said he would begin Saturday morning, unless authorities stop the execution of Swedish-Iranian national Ahmadreza Djalali (Jalali). Meysami, who is a doctor, said he will refuse all food and only take a little water and a medication which if not taken will cause quick bleeding in his digestive system.
Quoting unnamed "informed sources," semi-official media in Iran reported this week that the 51-year-old Djalali's death sentence was impending.
This is not the first time Iran has threatened to execute Djalali. In November 2020, Djalali told his family he was being sent to solitary confinement in preparation for his execution which the authorities eventually did not carried out, without offering any explanation.
The Iranian state television at the time aired a video of Djalali confessing to spying for Israel but he subsequently released an audio message from prison saying he had been coerced into making the confession. The father of two has always denied any wrongdoing.
Djalali's wife, Vida Mehrannia, told Iran International at the time that he was being used as pawn by Iran in its relations with Europe. Mehrannia on Friday told Radio Farda, that this time authorities have not informed Djalali, his family, and his lawyer of their intention to carry out the death sentence.
Meysami, a doctor and teacher who has been serving a five-year sentence for his anti-hijab activities, said in his message that he had met Djalali at Tehran's Evin prison over three years ago. "He had been on hunger strike in protest to repeated threats of his execution and the effects of which on his body and soul were clearly visible," he wrote.
"Imagine subjecting a human being to this repeatedly. Not once, not twice… Is there any torture worse than this?" Meysami said about repeated threats of execution made against Djalali.
"I don't want to just oppose Dr Djalali's execution, I want to draw attention to something much more important, to draw attention to the fact that they send a man to his death many times and bring him back," he wrote. "Regular and intentional torture like this is definitely crime against humanity."
Sweden's Foreign Minister Ann Linde in a tweet Wednesday expressed concern over Djalali.
“We’re aware of the egregious case of arbitrary detention of Swedish-Iranian doctor Ahmadreza Djalali by Iranian authorities. We echo concerns from UN experts that Djalali’s case is ‘truly horrific,’ and urge his release,” a US State Department spokesperson said in response to a query by Iran International Friday.
Earlier this week the Swedish foreign ministry confirmed that Iran has recently arrested a Swedish tourist.
Tehran's relations with Stockholm have escalated further following Swedish prosecutors asking a sentence of life imprisonment for Hamid Nouri, a former Iranian judiciary official, for crimes against humanity committed during the prison purges of 1988 in Iran.
Calling Nouri's arrest and trial "unlawful and unfair", Secretary of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights Kazem Gharibabadi on Monday accused Sweden of violating Nouri's human rights.
