Iran’s worsening drought has pushed water supplies in several provinces to critical levels, with officials in Tehran, Mashhad and Kerman warning that some reservoirs are close to the point where routine distribution may no longer be possible.
Iranian officials said on Saturday that the massive wildfire burning for a week in the Hyrcanian forest in northern Mazandaran Province was most likely caused by human activity, as authorities investigate suspected attempts to clear forest land for real estate projects.
Two Turkish firefighting planes, one helicopter and eight personnel will arrive in Iran on Saturday to help quell fires in the Hyrcanian forest in the country's north, Iranian environment chief Shina Ansari said on Friday.
Land subsidence has intensified across Iran in recent years, with excessive groundwater extraction, drought and climate change driving the sharpest declines in Khorasan Razavi, Isfahan and southern Kerman, the country’s crisis-management spokesman said on Friday.
Tehran’s air reached the unhealthy for sensitive groups range on Friday as pollutant concentrations climbed and meteorologists issued an orange alert for six major cities, warning that stagnant conditions could drive indices toward the dangerous threshold in the coming days.
Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain.
Tehran is once again tiptoeing around the issue of gasoline prices under the long shadow of November 2019 protests that became one of the bloodiest crackdowns in the Islamic Republic’s history.
Chelo with kebab, polo with herbs or saffron – the scent of steaming rice used to fill every Iranian home. But now, for many of the country's poorest, rising prices of Persian rice mean this beloved staple is slipping beyond their reach.
Iran’s government said on Tuesday that the real cost of importing gasoline has climbed to 700,000 rials per liter (about $0.62), far above the heavily subsidized pump prices that remain unchanged.
Wildfires that have been burning for over two weeks in northern Iran’s steep, densely wooded Hyrcanian forests flared again on Monday, prompting the deployment of helicopters and fresh ground crews, as officials warned that heat, wind and dry vegetation were fuelling the blaze.
Iran’s dairy industry is facing sharp cost pressures after the price of raw milk jumped roughly 60% in five months, a surge that industry officials say matches half a century of previous increases and is driving daily price changes across supermarket shelves.
Heavy rainfall caused floods in parts of western Iran on Monday, swamping streets and homes in areas that have endured months of severe drought and the country’s worst water shortages in decades, local media reported.
Iran has launched this year’s cloud-seeding operations over the Lake Urmia basin as the country faces one of its worst droughts in decades, with authorities simultaneously urging nationwide rain-seeking prayers as reservoirs run dry and water shortages deepen across major cities.
Iran's president said on Sunday the Defense Ministry and the armed forces could play a wider role in helping the government address structural economic shortfalls, arguing that their technical and human-resource capacities should be aligned with national development goals.
Air pollution reached hazardous levels in large parts of Iran on Saturday, with fourteen cities in southern Khuzestan province hitting red-alert conditions and several others nearing dangerous thresholds, according to the country’s national air-quality monitoring system.
Iran Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said using Persian Gulf water for Tehran could be done in an emergency as a last resort, since the long haul and treatment costs make the plan uneconomic in normal times.
Tehran and other major cities are edging toward water poverty, Dr. Kaveh Madani told Eye for Iran, with millions at risk of relying for their water on tankers trucks as taps begin to run dry.
Iran’s economy is now defined by a widening gulf between rich and poor and the rapid disappearance of the middle class, with a constant stream of corruption scandals adding to the daily hardship millions already face.
Iranian families across several regions described a rapid contraction of their diets in recent weeks, portraying kitchens reduced to bread-only meals as prices rose sharply across the country as reflected in multiple messages shared with Iran International.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian is coming under growing pressure for what critics call his failure to match tough talk on economic reform with concrete action.
An Iranian Grand Ayatollah has urged the faithful to perform traditional Islamic prayers for rainfall as a worsening drought across the country has caused water shortages and threatens to eventually make the capital Tehran uninhabitable.
As Iran’s capital Tehran endures its worst water crisis in living memory, few recent global cases offer clearer lessons than Cape Town in South Africa in 2018.
