Iranian Dams Reservoirs Rise by 26% after Record Rainfalls

Iran’s Ministry of Energy announced that heavy precipitation in the fall has been unprecedented in the last 51 years, adding that the volume of water behind dams across the country is now 26% more than what the figures showed last year.

The total volume of water held currently behind dams across Iran was 25.4 billion cubic meters (bcm), a 26-percent year-on-year increase, said the news service of the Ministry of Energy Paven.ir, adding that 50 percent of the total capacity of the dams was empty compared to the 59-percent reported between September and October 2019.

The report said on Saturday that precipitation as of 21 September, 2019, which marks the beginning of Iran’s water year, until 22 November had been more than 42 millimeters on average, adding that the figure represented a 23-percent increase year-on-year compared to the past 51 years.

The report said the amount of rainfall recorded in the two-month period was the 13th highest recorded over the past half-century.

The inflow into Iran’s dams had also increased by three percent compared to the last year with a total of 3.68 billion cubic meters (bcm), said the report, adding that dams were in a more desirable situation compared to the previous years mainly because of the huge rainfall seen in March and April this year.

The report said that only 67 of a total of 193 major dams in Iran had an empty capacity of less than 40 percent, adding that robust plans were in place to control floods that may happen in the upcoming spring.

Higher precipitation has been welcomed, however, in key crop-growing regions as farmers expect better yields after years of drought and low rainfall.

A report released last month recounted that Iran will open 10 new dams with a capacity of nearly quarter a billion cubic meters of water until March amid increased precipitation this year that has prompted plans for more dam projects across the country.

The report said that the planned dams would provide more than 41 million cubic meters of clean water for 1.6 million people in nine Iranian cities.

It said, however, that the dams would mostly cover the irrigation needs in six Iranian provinces through supplying nearly 700 million cubic meters of water to the farms. The report said that around eight million cubic meters of the capacity of the dams will go to the industries.

The projects come amid an increased precipitation in Iran this year. Floods swept through various areas in North, West and Southwest of Iran in late March and in April, forcing some unprecedented waves of evacuations.

The floods prompted calls on the government to revive some of its stalled dam construction projects to restrict the flow of water from rivers.