Iran contemplates evacuating capital over water scarcity
The World
PRX
4.6 • 943 Ratings
🗓️ 10 November 2025
⏱️ 49 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Iranian capital Tehran is suffering from a severe water crisis as the country faces a historic drought. The government has openly discussed an evacuation of the city as its nearly 10 million residents deal with water rationing. Also, at least eight people were killed in a car explosion in a densely populated area of India’s capital. And, Iraq heads to the polls for parliamentary elections, with a record number of candidates, but high voter apathy. Plus, a painting by Frida Kahlo that’s being auctioned later this month could become the most expensive work by any female or Latin American artist.
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| 0:00.0 | Iran has dealt with drought before, but not like this and not in the capital Tehran, home to more than 10 million people. |
| 0:11.7 | This is the first time that the most populist and economically and politically and politically powerful city in Iran is facing a situation like this. I'm Marco Wurman today. What's behind the water crisis in Iran is facing the situation like it is. |
| 0:21.7 | I'm Marco Wurman today. What's behind the water crisis in Iran? And connected to that, |
| 0:26.5 | UN climate change talks begin in Brazil. Attendees are all looking at the real impact on people's |
| 0:31.6 | lives. Whether it's cheaper energy, less pollution, better health, and more jobs, that has become absolutely sacrosanct. |
| 0:40.7 | And we swoon over dessert from a Polish bakery. |
| 0:43.8 | Kind of dense, very moist in the middle, very sugary, crusty, crunchy on the outside. |
| 0:51.2 | It's a unique texture. |
| 0:53.3 | Yeah, give me a dozen to go. Today on the outside. It's a unique texture. Yeah, give me a dozen to go. Today on the world. |
| 0:57.9 | This is the world. I'm Marco Wurman. Carolyn Beeler has a day off. Glad you could be with us. |
| 1:03.0 | We start this Monday in Iran, which is dealing with its worst drought in decades. The dam that |
| 1:07.8 | supplies water to Tehran the capital has dropped below 10% capacity. Things |
| 1:12.2 | are so bad in the city that authorities have started rationing water, one of several extreme |
| 1:16.8 | measures. Iran's government has even suggested evacuating Tehran's population of nearly 10 million |
| 1:22.3 | people. Kave Madani was once deputy head of Iran's Department of Environment. He's now based in Toronto where he directs the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment, and Health. |
| 1:33.0 | We spoke earlier today, and I asked Madani how bad this current drought is for Iran. |
| 1:37.7 | It is the most serious shortage I can recall. |
| 1:42.3 | I grew up into Iran. |
| 1:43.6 | That's my hometown, the capital of Iran, and it has |
| 1:47.2 | never been like this. It always had its steady water supply to all the residents. It's a city |
| 1:54.5 | of more than 10 million people. And there were some interruptions during dry years, but that was when I was a kid. |
| 2:03.3 | But it was never this bad with reservoirs, empty groundwater levels also low. |
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