Drought forces Iran to halt power generation at major dam
Iran’s Karkheh Dam hydroelectric power plant has stopped generating electricity because of a sharp drop in the reservoir’s water level, state media reported on Saturday.
Iran’s Karkheh Dam hydroelectric power plant has stopped generating electricity because of a sharp drop in the reservoir’s water level, state media reported on Saturday.
Amir Mahmoudi, head of the Karkheh Dam and power plant, said water is now being released through lower outlets to supply downstream needs after the generating units went offline. He said the dam’s reservoir currently holds about one billion cubic meters of water, with the water level 40 meters below normal operating height.
Mahmoudi said the Karkheh basin has endured several years of drought and low rainfall, urging conservation of water for drinking, farming, livestock, and industrial use.
The Karkheh Dam, one of the largest earthen dams in the world and the biggest in Iran and the Middle East, was built on the Karkheh River about 22 kilometers northwest of Andimeshk in Khuzestan province. It has a total generating capacity of 400 megawatts.
The shutdown comes as Iran faces one of its worst droughts in decades, with reservoirs across the country running dangerously low. Domestic media have reported steep drops at Tehran’s Karaj and Latian dams, while officials in Mashhad, Kerman and Yazd warn of collapsing aquifers and forced water rationing.
The Kurdish rights group Hengaw said this week that authorities in western Iran have also increased pressure on local journalists covering the crisis. Reporters in the city of Baneh were summoned or threatened by security agents after publishing reports on water shortages that left some neighborhoods without running water for more than three days.
The group said some journalists were accused of “spreading public anxiety” and forced to sign written pledges not to report further on the issue.
