Water Supply Cut to Dozens of Public Schools in Tehran Due to Lack of 'Sewage Connection Rights'

The Tehran Water and Wastewater Company confirmed that it has cut off water to dozens of schools in Tehran due to what it called debts and lack of 'sewage connection rights.' In a statement released on Saturday, September 8, it claimed that public schools owe over 600 billion tomans for sewage connection rights. The statement also mentioned that about 'two thousand public schools' in the capital are not connected to the sanitary sewage collection network and have been 'indifferent to the notices and warnings from this company regarding obtaining sewage connections.' Last week, managers from several schools in District 18 of Tehran reported water cuts due to sewage debts. Recently, news of water cuts in over forty schools in District 8 of Tehran for similar reasons has also emerged. In another part of the statement, the Tehran Water and Wastewater Company noted: 'After sending several written letters and notices to schools for purchasing sewage connection rights and their non-compliance with the law, we were compelled to legally cut off the water supply to the schools.' The company stated the water cuts were legal, despite the fact that in 2022, Alireza Fakhari, the then governor of Tehran, said that no organization has the right to cut off utilities to schools, and if provincial water and wastewater managers have issues, they should report them so that 'we can investigate the reasons for non-payment of debts.' The financial resource shortage of public schools and the inability of the education system to cover operational costs in recent years have also led to temporary gas supply cuts. Meanwhile, the education ministry has repeatedly promised that school utilities would not be cut off. Mohsen Baharloo, the deputy of education in Tehran, stated in 2022 regarding gas cuts to schools: 'No energy carriers should be cut off from any public school, and if such a case has occurred, it is due to negligence.' The shortage of water, electricity, and gas in recent years has caused problems not only for schools but also for other public sectors. This summer, the Tehran Electricity Distribution Company repeatedly announced that dozens of high-consumption national and provincial government offices were subject to power cuts due to non-compliance with a government decree. The deficit and imbalance in electricity and gas supply have been one of Iran's ongoing issues in recent years.