Hot summer raises water consumption in Tehran

TEHRAN,July 21(MNA) – Water consumption in Tehran has increased by 11 percent compared to the previous year as hot summer has extended in recent days, Tehran Water and Wastewater Company Managing Director Mohammad Parvaresh as saying. Air temperature is forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius by the end of the week, he said, adding that each one degree increase in temperature will raise water consumption 50,000-100,000 cubic meters. In May, Deputy Energy Minister Ali Reza Daemi said Iran will soon face a water crisis. Daemi also said that Iran has received very low rainfall over the past 10 years and it is predicted that the annual volume of water available per capita would decline to one fourth in the next 20 years. Meanwhile, Mohammad Darvish, a member of the board of directors of the Institute for Forest and Pasture Research, has said underground water level has dropped 2 meters in 70 plains across Iran in recent years. He has said the underground water level has dropped in 70 plains which equals approximately around 100 million hectares. Moreover, electricity consumption in Iran hit a historic record high on Wednesday and peaked 45.693 gigawatts (GW) at 14:43 hours local. The peak of consumption rose by 5.5 percent compared to the same day in the previous year, ISNA quoted Iranian Deputy Energy Minister Mohamamd Behzad as saying on Friday. The 24-hour consumption surpassed one billion kilowatt hours, up 9 percent year on year, he stated.