Iran turns to cloud-seeding as historic drought causes driest fall in 50 years
Climate change is making an already severe situation significantly worse.
The receding waters of Latyan Dam reveal a dry riverbed near Tehran, Iran, on November 10. (Photo Credit: Bahram/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)
(CNN) — To combat a severe water crisis, Iranian authorities have begun cloud-seeding operations to induce rainfall, Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported on Saturday, amid the driest fall in half a century.
Iran’s National Weather Forecasting Center of the Meteorological Organizations said Saturday that rainfall across the country has decreased by about 89% compared to the long-term average, making this the driest Autumn Iran has experienced in the past 50 years.
The cloud-seeding operation was carried out “by aircraft equipped with cloud seeding equipment” in the Lake Urmia basin in the northwest of the country, IRNA said.
It’s a process used in Iran for years, in which chemicals are dispersed into clouds to stimulate the release of moisture as rain.
This comes as Iran experiences one of its worst droughts on record, and its fifth consecutive year of drought. Key reservoirs are shrinking as rainfall is at record lows, and authorities are scrambling to reduce water consumption, and residents are desperately trying to conserve it to stave off catastrophe.
Just two decades ago, Lake Urmia was the Middle East’s largest lake, and its local economy thrived with hotels and restaurants catering to tourists. Now, boats sit rusted and immobile on land that is rapidly turning into a salt plain.
Climate change is making an already severe situation significantly worse.
An acute water crisis “has even raised alarms about drinking-water supplies in major cities, including the capital Tehran,” Iran’s state-run Press TV said in a report on Sunday.
Mohammad Mehdi Javadian-Zadeh, the head of the National Cloud-Seeding Research Center, said these cloud-seeding operations will continue until mid-May “whether by airplane or drone, and if suitable systems exist in the country,” as cited by IRNA.
“Considering that our country is located in arid regions and the urgent need for renewable water resources, cloud seeding is only performed to increase precipitation in various catchment basins,” Javadian-Zadeh added.
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