As Iran engages in negotiations with the United States to end the three-month war, it is confronted with a water crisis that has been overshadowed by the conflict.

Iran was already facing a multi-year drought and decline in precipitation, but the US-Israel war has added to the water woes after desalination plants, water pipelines and other civilian infrastructures were hit.

The country’s main water supplies, including its reservoirs, rivers and groundwater reserves, are running dry amid years of mismanagement through poor agricultural practices, overbuilding of dams and increased well drilling.

According to the Aqueduct Data of the World Resources Institute, which measures water risks, Iran’s baseline water stress score falls into the “extremely high” category, meaning the country uses more than 80 percent of its renewable water supplies in an average year.

Here’s what we know about the water crisis and how the war worsened the situation:

How bad were things?

In November 2025, Iran faced its worst water crisis in decades, following its fifth consecutive year of drought, which had left water reserves across the country nearly empty.

Water levels were so severe that Tehran’s Amir Kabir Dam only held 8 percent of its capacity, while across the country, 19 major dams had run dry.

At the time, President Masoud Pezehkian warned that if it did not rain by December, water would have to be rationed, and if there was still no rainfall, Tehran might have to be evacuated.

While the evacuations were avoided, the water crisis led to wider protests in December 2025 and into January over worsening living conditions and rising inflation.

Water shortages also led to protests in 2021 in the southern Khuzestan province, and protests broke out in 2018, with participants accusing the government of water mismanagement.

How did it get to this point?

Iran’s water crisis is the result of compounding factors, including climate change, agricultural practices, increased water drilling, declining groundwater levels, and poor governance.

Global warming has affected rainfall patterns in the country, leading to long droughts and increased rates of water evaporation, which in turn affects the country’s water supplies.

Since the Islamic revolution in 1979, Iran has promoted self-sufficiency, which has become an even higher priority amid international sanctions.

Iran has prioritised food security and promoted crops such as rice and wheat in areas not suitable for high water consumption. Sanctions have also made it harder for Iran to modernise its water infrastructure.

Moreover, subsidised household and water pricing have promoted the country’s aim of self-sufficiency but have led to excessive irrigation and over-pumping. The country’s self-sufficiency policy accounts for about 90 percent of Iran’s water use.

A key example of the water crisis is the Zayandeh Rud river in the province of Isfahan, which dries up for most of the year due to water-intensive industries in the area, including steel and the creation of agricultural land alongside the river.

Professor Kaveh Madani, director of the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), who coined the term “water-bankruptcy”, meaning that Iran has been using more water than it has, said it is hard to attribute the situation in the country to a single cause.

“They [Iran] did not take water as a limit to growth like some other ambitious nations in the Middle East and North Africa, and here we are because you keep investing in infrastructure, you keep expanding your agriculture,” leading to a natural limitation, Madani told Al Jazeera.

Regarding mismanagement, Madani said it was a problem for Iran as a whole.

“It’s related to how development and water decisions were interrelated or impacted each other and that meant that Iranians had what I called the thirst for development after the revolution [and] wanted to prove themselves to the world, over-relied on technology [and] became one of the biggest dam builders in the world,” he said, explaining that Iran continued to expand without the foresight that climate change could come.

How has the war made it worse?

On March 7, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the US had bombed a freshwater desalination plant on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz, impacting water supply for 30 villages.

While attacks on Iran’s energy infrastructure threaten water supplies, their effects are yet to be fully assessed as the war is still to end.

But once Iran starts up reconstruction efforts following US and Israeli attacks on the country, the water crisis will likely get worse as resources will be diverted.

Moreover, the war has led to environmental issues, including air pollution from burning oil and gas facilities, and has contributed to climate change.

In a new analysis by LiveScience, researchers found that between February 28 and March 14, the war had released almost 5.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases following the destruction of schools, homes and buildings.

What is Iran doing to help the water crisis?

With the war taking the government’s current focus, in November, Iran began cloud seeding, the process of spraying chemical salts into clouds to induce rainfall and circumvent the drought.

Authorities had also announced plans to penalise households and businesses that consume excessive amounts of water.

President Pezeshkian on Saturday spoke against drilling unauthorised wells and excessive extraction of groundwater resources. The president called for the adoption of modern technology and campaigns to bring awareness of water resource management.

He called for “planning and research to expand modern agricultural methods, including advanced greenhouse cultivation, hydroponic farming, aeroponic systems, and other innovative production techniques”, according to the Mehr news agency.

Still, Madani explained that the good news for Iran is that this year has been “wet”.

“Precipitation overall, if you think about the whole country, has been above the normal level, so that makes it a wet year, unlike the previous five years that were mostly dry,” Madani said.