The Entire Mazandaran Province is Experiencing Drought

The Director General of Meteorology in Mazandaran Province stated on Thursday, June 21, that "the entire area" of Mazandaran Province is "affected by drought." According to the official news agency of the Islamic Republic, IRNA, Mohammad Reza Razavi mentioned that "from the beginning of October last year until the end of May 2018, the entire area of the province has been impacted by various types of drought." He noted that precipitation during the current agricultural year in Iran has decreased by about 26% compared to its long-term average. The Director General of Meteorology in Mazandaran announced that this decrease in rainfall in the province is "about 14%." Nevertheless, the entire region of the province is, according to Razavi, "involved in a drought crisis." In this context, "the heights of Sari County and the water tributaries of this area" are experiencing "very severe drought." According to this meteorological official, an increase of more than two degrees Celsius in temperature in 2017 "led to early snowmelt and the loss of the province's water reserves, while this snow should have gradually contributed to the surface waters of the province until the end of May this year." The presentation of these statistics by this meteorological official may indicate the worsening situation in Mazandaran Province and the entire country, as this province, located in northern Iran and close to the sea, is one of the few provinces that previously did not suffer from water scarcity. Reports from various international and national organizations and figures identify water scarcity in Iran today as one of the country's most significant challenges. For instance, Gary Lewis, the UN Resident Coordinator in Iran, has deemed water scarcity as fundamentally the main human security challenge in Iran. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Energy, currently, 334 cities in Iran with a population of 35 million, or about half of the country's population, are in a state of water stress. IRNA had previously reported in April of this year on the expansion of drought in "99% of" Mazandaran Province. The news agency reported on Thursday, citing a report from the "National Drought Center and Crisis Management of the Meteorological Organization," that the volume of rainfall in Iran has decreased by "one millimeter per year" in the long term. Meanwhile, the "potential annual evaporation and transpiration in the country is increasing by four and a half millimeters per year": "This situation means that each year, the available water in the country and province is decreasing." However, Reza Ardakanian, the Minister of Energy, has previously stated that the decrease in rainfall is just one example of the problems in the country's water sector and that other issues in this area should not be hidden behind the "problem of low precipitation." According to the Iranian Minister of Energy, "improving water consumption methods" is one of the ways to exit this situation and "this is more important than finding new water sources." Water scarcity is one of the environmental crises that has plagued Mazandaran Province. Cyrus Vatankhah, Secretary of the Energy Development Headquarters of the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology of Iran, stated in early June that the situation regarding waste and refuse in the two provinces of Gilan and Mazandaran has become "extremely critical." The crisis of pollution in the Caspian Sea has also reached a stage where the carcinogenic nature of the toxins present in the water has been raised by some experts.