Air pollution caused about 58,975 deaths in Iran in the Iranian calendar year starting in March 2024, equivalent to 161 deaths per day and around seven every hour, the country’s deputy health minister said on Sunday.
Alireza Raisi said the deaths were linked to exposure to fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns, known as PM2.5 — tiny airborne particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream.
“Twenty-three percent were due to ischemic heart disease, 21 percent to lung cancer, 17 percent to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 15 percent to stroke, and 13 percent to lower respiratory infections,” he said.
Raisi said the economic damage caused by deaths attributed to air pollution was estimated at about $17.2 billion in 2024.
“These damages are equivalent to $47 million per day," he said.
Raisi said the average daily concentrations of fine particles in the country’s major cities are far higher than the World Health Organization’s permissible limits.
A day earlier, Iran's vice-president for science, technology, and knowledge-based economy Hossein Afshin warned about the consequences of air pollution especially in industrial regions.
Afshin said the central province of Isfahan has the highest number of cancer and multiple sclerosis (MS) patients in the country, adding that the operation of old power plants in the region increases particulate matter and worsens pollution.
“When power plants of this age operate in Isfahan province, the amount of particulate matter in the air also increases,” he said.
Khuzestan province worst hit
Raisi said Ahvaz, a city in southwest Iran, recorded the highest annual average concentration of PM2.5 at 42 micrograms per cubic meter — about eight times the WHO guideline of 5 micrograms per cubic meter — followed by Isfahan, Tehran, and Arak.
In Khuzestan province, air pollution killed 1,624 people over the past year and caused $427 million in health-sector losses, according to Mehrdad Sharifi, deputy for health at Ahvaz Jundishapur University.
He said the air in the cities of Ahvaz, Dasht-e Azadegan, and Hoveyzeh had been healthy for only two days in recent months, adding that 22,000 patients sought hospital treatment in October due to pollution-related illnesses.
Khuzestan’s deputy governor said on Sunday that schools in most cities of the province will remain online until around mid-November, while high schools will continue in person.
Calls to ban old vehicles, invest in cleaner energy, and empower a central environmental authority have so far gone unanswered. Critics warn that without systemic change, major cities including Tehran will continue to suffer both in air quality and human lives.
"No water rationing — the scheduled and announced distribution and supply of water on a rotating basis — has so far been implemented in Tehran or any other city in the country," the Revolutionary Guards-affiliated Fars News reported citing the National Water and Wastewater Company.
Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi on Sunday called the nightly pressure cuts a temporary management tool to stabilize the city’s aging water network and reduce leakage. Similar steps taken during the summer, he said, conserved significant volumes.
The measure, in effect from midnight until early morning, is designed to conserve supplies and reduce network losses, the spokesperson for Iran’s water industry, Issa Bozorgzadeh, said.
“We lower water pressure from midnight until around dawn to reduce urban leakage and allow reservoirs to refill,” he said.
The energy minister said on Saturday “Tehran's water pipeline system is more than 100 years old and worn-out."
"During the 12-day war (with Israel in June), the pipelines also suffered damage, which further added to the deterioration. We are sometimes forced to reduce water pressure to zero on certain nights.”
Residents report repeated disruptions
Households across eastern and northern Tehran have reported recurring water cuts and sharp pressure drops in recent nights, according to IRNA. Residents told the outlet that the disruptions have become routine. Many apartment buildings have installed small pumps and storage tanks to mitigate the problem, while others without such systems face hours-long outages.
Inflow to Tehran’s dams has dropped by 43 percent compared with the previous water year, Behzad Parsa, managing director of the Tehran Regional Water Company, told IRNA. Parsa described the situation as unprecedented in decades, attributing it to a 100-percent decrease in rainfall in Tehran province compared with long-term averages.
Expert links crisis to long-term relocation plans
President Masoud Pezeshkian’s repeated focus on Tehran’s water crisis serves two purposes, Water and environmental expert Mohsen Mousavi-Khansari wrote in a piece on Etemad daily.
“The first is to encourage conservation among citizens and to prompt coordinated planning among agencies responsible for water supply, distribution, and use. The second is to prepare public opinion in Tehran and other major cities on the central plateau for the eventual transfer of part of the population and infrastructure toward Iran’s southern coasts.”
He linked this to Pezeshkian’s proposal to relocate the capital to the Makran region.
Ali Moridi, head of the Water, Wastewater and Environmental Engineering Department at Shahid Abbaspour University of Water and Power Industry, said Iran’s water emergency stemmed not only from its arid climate but from a chronic disconnect between scientists, industry, and government agencies.
“If the current situation continues, it is not unlikely that Iran’s central plateau will become depopulated,” Moridi told reporters at a university briefing.
Moridi cited research linking groundwater depletion and soil salinity to rural migration in southern provinces such as Fars, where vanishing wells have pushed villagers toward cities, worsening urban sprawl and social pressures.
“Many rural communities with high migration rates were directly affected by falling groundwater levels and the salinization of drinking water,” he said.
He urged stronger cooperation between academia and policymakers and showcased a new university-led “biochar” project that converts agricultural waste into a soil additive capable of reducing water use in farming – a sector that consumes over 80 percent of Iran’s water.
“The project must move from the lab to the field,” he said. “Reducing agricultural water use is vital if Iran is to survive this crisis.”
Nationwide emergency
Moridi’s comments come as Tehran faces unannounced nightly water cuts, with reservoirs at record lows and drought conditions worsening across 20 provinces.
The Karaj Dam, one of the capital’s main suppliers, has dropped to less than 10 percent of capacity, officials said this week.
Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said on Saturday that some of the city’s pipeline infrastructure was “over 100 years old and severely damaged,” forcing the government to cut nighttime supply to prevent network collapse.
President Masoud Pezeshkian warned earlier this week that Tehran could face mass evacuation if the drought persists through winter. “If it doesn’t rain, we will have no water,” he said.
Meteorologists say the country has entered one of its driest 50-year periods, with rainfall down more than 85 percent compared with last year.
The National Drought Crisis Center has classified the situation as “severe,” warning that no significant rain is forecast for at least ten days.
“Almost all underground and under-mountain missile infrastructure remains intact and has no serious problems,” Gholamreza Jalali said, crediting long-running operational measures and engineering choices.
The priority given to aerospace and missile assets, Jalali said, guided 20 years of planning for missile cities and depots built into mountains and deep underground. Only minor repairable damage occurred at some access points, he added.
Underground networks and nuclear sites
Sensitive nuclear centers, Jalali said, were placed in safe spaces after early threat assessments, adding that he personally proposed the protected design concept years ago.
“The shadow of war was present from the very beginning of our activities, and based on the threat scenarios, it was decided that sensitive nuclear sites should be designed in secure underground locations beneath mountains.”
During the 12-day war and the US attacks on nuclear facilities, added Jalali, some foreign reports highlighted the confrontation between “bunker buster bombs” and Iranian concrete engineering. “It was an oversimplified interpretation of designs."
“Regarding the US claim of destroying nuclear facilities, it must be said that further details remain classified and confidential,” he added.
Banks cyber security not addressed yet
Jalali pointed to cyber-attacks on Iranian banks, saying two major banks shared a core platform with unresolved weaknesses. “For banking security, we designed a regional secure model and obtained funding, but execution rests with the relevant bodies,” he said.
During the June conflict, Iran’s Bank Sepah and Bank Pasargad were hit by major cyberattacks that disrupted online banking and ATM services.
Jalali also addressed the use of foreign messaging platforms by military figures, saying none of Iran’s commanders, living or dead, had ever used WhatsApp, while reports suggested some Hamas leaders had relied on it.
Advanced surveillance and data-analysis systems – spanning artificial intelligence, satellites, and signal tracking – are fully controlled by Israel and the United States, he said, adding that using such platforms exposes communications to monitoring and targeting.
“When we are in confrontation with such adversaries, we must assume total visibility across digital space.”
Former communications minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said in August that Iranian officials with sensitive information on their phones were easy targets for Israeli cyber operations during June's 12-day war, adding that Israel exploited platforms such as WhatsApp to track them.
“In the recent war, those who had information and were of interest to Israel were easy prey for hacking,” Azari Jahromi said, but did not identify those targeted.
Shelters kept confidential
Tehran has multiple shelter options, including metro stations, car parks, and basements, but officials avoided announcing them publicly to prevent panic, he added.
Local authorities received training to guide people in emergencies, while Tehran Municipality was working to upgrade facilities and warning systems for possible use as public shelters, according to him.
Iran had fully expected attacks on its nuclear facilities and launched a plan to prepare, he added.
Limited drills in Kashan and broader exercises at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan helped minimize risks, Jalali said, adding that chemical storage was cleared and activities scaled back before strikes, and post-attack tests confirmed no radioactive contamination.
The dissident activist made the remarks in Berlin on the sidelines of the annual forum of the World Liberty Congress, a movement she co-founded in 2022 along with Russian activist Garry Kasparov and Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López.
“We intend to increase pressure on dictators by uniting opposition movements from different countries," she said.
Alinejad compared Iran’s compulsory hijab laws and political repression to the Berlin Wall, telling Iran International that Iranians are destroying this wall through their defiance.
The World Liberty Congress is holding its second annual gathering on the sidelines of the Freedom Week marking the 36th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The gathering has brought together 180 participants from 60 countries including opposition figures, lawmakers, and rights activists from Iran, Russia, Venezuela, and China.
The event aims to coordinate global strategies to defend democracy and counter the spread of autocracy.
Practicing democracy in exile
Alinejad said the three founders of the World Liberty Congress had decided not to stand in this year’s internal elections to demonstrate democratic accountability.
“Mr. Leopoldo López, Garry Kasparov and I oppose Khamenei, Maduro and Putin, and to prove we are not like the dictators, we told the Berlin parliament that in the World Liberty Congress elections we will step aside so others can present themselves as the congress’s president, vice president and secretary this year.”
“This is an exercise to show democratic countries that we can hold elections and free ourselves from dictators,” added Alinejad.
The activist previously defined the World Liberty Congress as an alternative to the United Nations, which she said "has become a place to unite dictators."