Water has been cut off in several districts of Tehran for up to 48 hours, with authorities warning that the Iranian capital could run out of water as early as October, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
"It should be made clear to the population that it is no longer a shortage, but that soon we will have no water at all", a spokesman for Tehran's water authority told the Iranian news agency ISNA.
Mohammad-Taghi Hossein-Sadeh said there was no realistic solution to the crisis other than a radical reduction in water consumption. The government is trying to alleviate the problems by drawing water from the Talegan Dam in northwest Tehran. Hossein-Sadeh, however, warned that water resources there are also limited and are expected to run out by October at the latest. Tehran will then face a natural disaster.
Public toilets in the capital are closed, and authorities are currently unable to provide water to irrigate green spaces. Meanwhile, prolonged power outages have rendered air conditioners unusable, even as temperatures soar to 40 or 50 degrees.
To escape the heat, many Tehran residents have headed to the Caspian Sea in the north of the country, where temperatures are cooler. Water supplies have also been cut off in at least 50 other towns for 24 to 48 hours. The government hopes to ease the crisis by shortening the workweek from five to four days and adding additional public holidays. Otherwise, it seems to be in trouble, with the clergy trying to calm the angry population with religious slogans.