President Rouhani says the amount of rain in Iran has tripled last year.

In a meeting with the minister of agriculture and high-ranking officials of this ministry, President Rouhani said that in the three months of Autumn, the amount of rain in the country has tripled compared to last year. Meaning last year the average rainfall was 33 millimeters, and this year it has been 107 millimeters during the same amount of time.

According to IRIB, Rouhani claimed that despite this increase, the water reserves behind the dams have not changed.

The report states that “due to the continuous droughts in recent years and dried land, the rainfalls this Autumn did not turn into running water and some of the rainfall was absorbed by the soil. Last year was one of the driest years in the last 50 years, and therefore the increased rainfall did not change the water reserves. The water reserve at some dams are at a crisis level and if nothing changes, they might decrease even more this year. Currently, almost 52 percent of the dam water reserves are empty, and among 178 big dams, 88 important dams have less than 40 percent water reserves.”

The report adds that by January, 334 towns and cities in the country are facing water shortages.

Rouhani also warned about the depletion of underground water reserves.