Iran's Water Crisis

Climate change has exposed decades of policy failures, igniting protests

- Golnar Motevalli, with Jeremy Diamond, Laura Millan Lombraña, and Arsalan Shahla

It was a gushing river that turned the ancient town of Esfahan into a cultural jewel that twice served as capital of the Persian Empire. Today, as it trickles through Iran, the Zayandeh Rud is a barren battleground.

Thousands of Iranians flooded the dusty riverbed last month to protest against the state’s management of water resources during the worst drought in decades. Videos on social media showed baton-wielding security forces moving into the crowd, leaving some with bloodied faces, including a middle-aged woman cloaked in a black chador. Deadly clashes also took place this summer in the province of Khuzestan, 180 miles away, where decades of oil drilling have drained wetlands and degraded the once-fertile soil.

“Our drinking water is getting worse, and the farmers are losing their livelihoods,” says Tahereh, an environmental activist who participated in the Esfahan protests and asked that her full name not be used for fear of reprisal. “I can’t forget the smell of the breeze that used to lift off the river when I walked to school as a child. Now I can only sense and feel it in my dreams.”

As Iran’s standoff with the U.S. intensifies, support for the country’s leaders has sunk to record lows, reflecting frustrations over their response to crippling sanctions, including a crackdown on dissent. Now a long-brewing water crisis, the result of decades of unchecked industrial expansion, could eclipse Tehran’s fight with Washington over how to revive the 2015 nuclear deal as the most pressing problem facing the government.