19 major dams near drying as Iran faces severe water shortage
Nineteen of Iran’s major dams are on the verge of drying up and three have completely run out of water, state media reported, citing data from the Iran Water Resources Management Company.
Nineteen of Iran’s major dams are on the verge of drying up and three have completely run out of water, state media reported, citing data from the Iran Water Resources Management Company.
After five consecutive years of drought, the country began the new water year with severely depleted reserves. Nationwide, reservoirs are only 35% full, and inflows to major dams have fallen by half compared with last year.
Dams in Tehran, Khorasan, Kerman, Hormozgan, and Zanjan provinces are among those at critical levels, while the Shamil, Niyan, Voshmgir, Golestan, and Roudbal dams have reached zero storage.
Officials warn that the persistent decline poses growing risks for drinking water, agriculture, and industry across much of the country.
Lawmakers passed the measure with 144 votes in favor, 108 against, and three abstentions out of 262 present. The reform amends the Monetary and Banking Law to redefine the rial as equal to 10,000 current rials and introduces a new subunit, the qiran or gheran, worth one hundredth of a rial.
Under the legislation, both old and new rials will circulate for up to three years during a transition period. The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) must establish operational procedures within two years of enactment and publicly announce the start of the change through official media.
According to the new law, after the transition period, all financial obligations denominated in the current rial will be settled using the new unit.
The CBI will also be responsible for managing the withdrawal of old banknotes and coins and for setting foreign exchange rates under the country’s current exchange regime.
The plan -- first proposed by the government in 2019 and discussed across three administrations and parliamentary terms -- has undergone multiple revisions. The latest version retains the rial as Iran’s official currency, dropping earlier proposals to rename it the toman.
Shamseddin Hosseini, head of parliament’s Economic Committee, said the measure’s main purpose was to “make banknotes more functional and facilitate financial transactions.”
He added that the abundance of zeros in the national currency had caused accounting and operational difficulties, adding that similar redenominations had been undertaken by countries such as Turkey in 2003 and 2005.
Hosseini acknowledged that cutting zeros would not directly reduce inflation or address Iran’s underlying economic challenges, but called it “an unavoidable adjustment” given years of high inflation and declining purchasing power.
Iran’s central bank governor Mohammad Reza Farzin said in May that the redenomination would take place this year as part of wider banking reforms.
The change, he added, would align official usage with common practice among Iranians, who already express prices in tomans -- equivalent to 10,000 rials.
The reform comes amid persistent inflation of about40%, a more than 90% loss in the rial’s value since US sanctions were reimposed in 2018, and widespread economic hardship.
Economists say that while the move could have short-term psychological benefits, it is unlikely to solve Iran’s deeper structural issues, including fiscal imbalances, monetary instability, and limited central bank independence.
“This policy is largely cosmetic,” economist Ahmad Alavi told Iran International in August. “Without tackling the roots of inflation -- from liquidity growth to systemic inefficiencies -- removing zeros will not restore the rial’s value.”
Iran has debated currency reform for decades, with earlier efforts raised under the administrations of Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Hassan Rouhani. The current legislation, delayed several times by the Guardian Council, now returns to the body for final review before becoming law.
Hossein Shahrabi, head of the Tehran-based knowledge-based company Omid Faza, told Tasnim news agency that preparations for the satellite were complete and that it would be launched aboard the same rocket that carried Iran’s Kosar and Hodhod satellites last year.
He said the new spacecraft combines Earth observation and telecommunications functions, integrating improved solar arrays and communication links to address problems that limited image transmission in earlier models.
“The issue linking attitude control to solar energy absorption has been resolved,” Shahrabi said. The satellite adds an S-band link, enabling full attitude control from the ground, he added.
The Do-Namay 1 is a modified version of the Kosar platform and marks Iran’s growing use of private-sector firms in its space program.
According to Shahrabi, image resolution has improved to about 3.5 meters, and its optical payloads now achieve near-ground-test performance levels.
The official said the satellite would be delivered to the launch operator within a month, with a target launch date in Azar, the ninth month of the Iranian calendar (November–December).
Iran loses two satellites
Shahrabi, referring to technical issues with the Kosarsatellite, said its attitude control and power absorption systems had become unintentionally interdependent.
“This prevented us from first stabilizing the satellite’s orientation and then delivering the necessary power according to the original design,” he explained.
“Although the satellite remains in orbit and we receive signals in some areas with sufficient sunlight, we ultimately failed to obtain any imagery from it.”
He added that communication with the Hodhod satellite was lost about two weeks before the 12-day war.
“I don’t want to directly link the satellite’s condition to that event,” he said, “but a series of incidents occurred, and unfortunately the satellite received an unauthorized command from outside the control system. After that, we completely lost contact with Hodhod.”
He added that Hodhod had been turning on and off repeatedly since the incident. “Unfortunately, we now have even less communication with Hodhod than with Kosar. I emphasize that I am not attributing this to the war -- since I am not certain -- but I mention it simply to inform those who want to know the latest status of the satellite.”
“We consider a technical malfunction more likely,” he added, “but there are two ambiguities -- first, the coincidence of this incident with the 12-day war, as it occurred roughly two weeks before; and second, the fact that we received a command from outside the guidance system prior to it.”
The announced launch comes as Iran accelerates plans to expand its space activities. The head of the Iranian Space Agency, Hassan Salarieh, said last month that Iran aims to launch four satellites by March 2026 and inaugurate a new spaceport in Chabahar, in the country’s southeast.
These include an updated Kosar Earth-observation satellite and prototype satellites from the planned Soleimani narrowband constellation, intended to support Internet of Things services.
Western governments have repeatedly expressed concern that Iran’s satellite launches could aid its ballistic missile program, citing overlapping technologies. Tehran says its space program is purely civilian and aimed at scientific and communication applications.
