{"id":526391,"date":"2026-06-09T15:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/526391\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:18:19","slug":"irans-lakes-are-vanishing-satellite-images-show-a-deepening-water-crisis-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/526391\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s lakes are vanishing: Satellite images show a deepening water crisis | Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many Iranians, the most immediate threat is no longer just war, but water.<\/p>\n

Years of drought, falling rainfall and unsustainable water use have pushed the country into severe water stress, depleting reservoirs, rivers and groundwater reserves. The US-Israel war on Iran has added further strain<\/a> after reports of damage to desalination plants, pipelines and other civilian water infrastructure in the early weeks of the conflict.<\/p>\n

Iran is classified by the World Resources Institute as facing \u201cextremely high\u201d baseline water stress, using more than 80 percent of its renewable water supplies each year.<\/p>\n

In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera breaks down Iran\u2019s worsening water crisis and what is driving it.<\/p>\n

How Lake Urmia disappeared<\/p>\n

One of the most striking examples of Iran\u2019s water crisis can be seen from space.<\/p>\n

A time-lapse display of Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran shows how the largest saltwater lake in the Middle East, which covered nearly 6,000sq km (2,300sq miles) in the 1990s, shrunk to just 581sq km (224sq miles), less than 10 percent of its former size.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVEA time-lapse view of Lake Urmia from 1990 to 2026 [Google Earth]<\/p>\n

Consecutive droughts, agricultural water use, river diversion, and groundwater extraction have transformed vast stretches of Lake Urmia into exposed salt flats.<\/p>\n

More than 60 dams built on its feeder rivers choked off inflows, while farmers diverted water into irrigation channels and decades of groundwater extraction drained the aquifers below. Rising temperatures accelerated evaporation as precipitation fell.<\/p>\n

\"URMIA,A view of Lake Urmia in 2014 [Kaveh Kazemi\/Getty Images]Iran\u2019s growing water deficit<\/p>\n

To sustain its freshwater resources, a country must replenish at least as much water as it withdraws for agriculture, industry, and household use.<\/p>\n

Iran has long been on the wrong side of that equation. Decades of dam construction, intensive farming, and groundwater extraction have pushed consumption far beyond what rainfall can replenish.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Iran\u2019s 92 million people consumed around 100 billion cubic metres of water, nearly 13 billion more than its renewable resources could provide.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE-Iran<\/p>\n

Agriculture is by far the largest consumer of water in Iran, accounting for about 91 percent of all withdrawals, compared with seven percent for households and two percent for industry. Yet much of that water is lost before it reaches crops, as ageing and inefficient irrigation systems waste a significant share of the country\u2019s most precious resource.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE-Iran<\/p>\n

Disappearing dams around Tehran<\/p>\n

Iran is one of the world\u2019s major dam-building countries, and has constructed hundreds of large and small dams to store water, generate electricity, and manage shortages.<\/p>\n

In recent years, dozens of reservoirs have dropped to extremely low levels, leaving several to nearly run dry.<\/p>\n

Before-and-after satellite imagery of Lar Dam, Latyan Dam and Mamloo Dam, all clustered around Tehran and the southern slopes of the Alborz mountains and forming part of the main water supply system for the capital region, reveals how water levels have declined over time as drought and rising demand strain Tehran\u2019s water system.<\/p>\n

Drought displacing thousands<\/p>\n

Water scarcity is increasingly reshaping where Iranians can live.<\/p>\n

As wells run dry and farming becomes harder to sustain, many families are leaving rural communities in search of more secure livelihoods. According to Abdolkarim Hosseinzadeh, Iran\u2019s vice president for Rural Development and Disadvantaged Regions, only 38,000 of the country\u2019s 69,000 villages remain inhabited, while 31,000 villages have been abandoned.<\/p>\n

The pressure extends far beyond abandoned settlements. According to Iran\u2019s state-owned Water and Wastewater Company, about 27,000 villages, home to more than 10 million people, are currently experiencing water shortages. In total, more than 70 percent of Iran\u2019s villages are facing some form of water crisis.<\/p>\n

Many migrants head towards major cities such as Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, and Shiraz. Yet these cities are facing water pressures of their own. Home to more than nine million people, Tehran has seen growing strain on its water system as drought and demand continue to rise.<\/p>\n

The map below shows how Iran\u2019s population is concentrated in the western half of the country. Today, roughly 75 percent of Iranians live on less than 40 percent of the country\u2019s land area, concentrating both people and water demand in a relatively small region.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE-Iran<\/p>\n

The effects of water scarcity can also be seen along the Zayandehrud River, once one of central Iran\u2019s most important waterways.<\/p>\n

Satellite imagery of Zayandehrud Dam reveals declining water levels upstream after years of drought and overuse.<\/p>\n

Further downstream, the consequences become visible in the heart of Isfahan. The historic Allahverdi Khan Bridge (Si-o-Se Pol) was built over a river that sustained the city for centuries.<\/p>\n

Today, residents increasingly encounter dry riverbeds beneath its arches as sections of the Zayandehrud repeatedly run dry.<\/p>\n

\"DieThe Si-o-se Pol (33-Bridge) historical bridge in 2017 [Thomas Schulze\/Picture alliance via Getty Images]\"AnAn Iranian man stands on the dried-up side of the Zayandehrud River as the Si-o-se Pol (33-Bridge) historical bridge is pictured in the historic city of Isfahan [Morteza Nikoubazl\/NurPhoto via Getty Images]Only a tiny fraction from desalination<\/p>\n

Desalination accounts for only about three percent of Iran\u2019s water needs, a stark contrast to Gulf neighbours<\/a>, which depend on it for the majority of their drinking water.<\/p>\n

Most of Iran\u2019s desalination plants are located along its southern coast on the Gulf. As a result, desalination is largely concentrated in coastal cities, while inland areas such as Tehran, Isfahan and most agricultural regions rely on other water sources.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For many Iranians, the most immediate threat is no longer just war, but water. Years of drought, falling…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[18,440,3427,3617,19,76358,45554,18929,17,92994,8820,133,172144,447],"class_list":["post-526391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-eire","tag-environment","tag-explainer","tag-features","tag-ie","tag-infographic","tag-interactive","tag-iran","tag-ireland","tag-maps","tag-middle-east","tag-science","tag-us-israel-war-on-iran","tag-water"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116720822804112683","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}