Iran's worst drought in decades
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 November 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Iranian government says water supplies in the capital Tehran will suffer periodic cuts, as the country struggles to cope with its worst drought in decades. The announcement came two days after President Masoud Pezeshkian suggested Tehran might have to be evacuated, if shortages continue. His comments have prompted widespread criticism in Iranian newspapers and on social media, with the president accused of scaremongering and conducting "a narrative of despair." We speak to a resident in the capital and a former Environment Department official.
Also in the programme: Curtis Sliwa who came 3rd in this week's election for New York mayor tells us he was offered bribes to pull out of the race; and the woman who took up golf in her 50's and hit three holes in one in a month.
(Photo: Iranians picnic inside an almost dry river, which was once full, in the Fasham area, north of Tehran, Iran, 25 August 2025. Credit: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA/Shutterstock)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.8 | Hello and welcome to Newtower from the BBC World Service coming live from London. |
| 0:14.0 | This is Owen Bennett Jones. |
| 0:15.1 | And later on, we'll hear from Curtis Slewa, who came third in this week's election for New York Mayor. |
| 0:22.0 | He tells me why he lost. |
| 0:23.9 | The masters of the universe weighed in against me. |
| 0:27.1 | The most powerful man in the world, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, |
| 0:31.7 | and now maybe the first trillionaire, Elon Musk and others, |
| 0:35.5 | who used their enormous social networking prowess, began around-the-clock, |
| 0:42.1 | 72-hour campaigns. It fed into the fear, the fright, and the hysteria. More from him a little |
| 0:49.4 | later on. But first, Iran, and the UN has been raising the alarm for years. |
| 0:54.9 | In 2017, Antonio Guterres, just starting out as UN Secretary General, |
| 0:59.8 | warned that global demand for fresh water was projected to grow by more than 40% by 2050, |
| 1:07.0 | and that tensions over water access were rising. |
| 1:10.3 | In 2024, UNESCO said about half the planet's population |
| 1:14.6 | faces grave water shortages and, I quote, cities and municipalities have been unable to keep up with the |
| 1:21.5 | accelerating growth of their urban populations. So perhaps it should not be so surprising that there is now a government, |
| 1:29.3 | it is the Iranian government, saying a crisis is close. Iran's president, Massoud, |
| 1:36.1 | Peshkian, has warned that the capital Tehran may even have to be evacuated if he doesn't get |
| 1:42.5 | rain soon. If he doesn't get rain soon. |
| 1:52.4 | If it doesn't rain, we'll have to start rationing water in Tehran between late November and early December. Even if we do ration it, and it still doesn't rain by then, we'll run out |
| 1:58.5 | of water and we'll have to evacuate Tehran. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.