Unprecedented drought pushes Iran's southeast to brink
A new, grim estimate says Iran's already underdeveloped Sistan-Baluchistan province will have to brace not only for a worsening water crisis but for ripple effects as well, including severe economic and social repercussions.
The director of the state-run Office for Meteorology in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province has painted one of the bleakest pictures ever for the impoverished area's water shortages.
According to Mohsen Heydari, all-time low precipitation over the past months is only complicating the consequences of a decade-long drought in the region. Heydari told Iran's Tasnim News Agency that over 95% of the entire province is now effectively engulfed by drought.
The province has recorded a total of only 4.3 millimeters of rainfall over the past year, which Heydari fears "would deal irreparable blows to the [area's] economy, natural resources and agriculture."
Yet the implications do not stop there. In a stern warning, the Iranian official expressed concern about "social and economic droughts" due to the tremendous impacts of the water shortages upon the livelihood of the locals.
