Iran Extends Government Shutdowns Amid Soaring Heat and Power Cuts

Iranian officials have announced an extra day of government shutdowns to ease demand on dwindling electricity and water supplies amid a summer of searing heat.

Schools, universities and government offices will close across most of the country on Saturday for a public holiday. For the past month, most public offices in Iran have closed on Wednesdays in order to reduce energy and water use. It is not clear how long the shutdowns will last.

Still reeling from a devastating 12-day war with Israel this summer, most Iranians now experience daily power and water cuts at a time when parts of the country are seeing extreme humidity and temperatures of up to to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. The daily cuts mean that residents cannot cool off in air-conditioning or run tap water.

Despite being home to one of the world’s largest supplies of natural gas and oil, Iran has long faced energy shortages in part because of dilapidated infrastructure, which the authorities blame on Western sanctions.

During the war this summer, Israeli strikes damaged oil storage sites, refineries and power stations. A year earlier, Israel blew up two Iranian gas pipelines, affecting supplies that produce about 70 percent of the country’s energy use.

According to state media, three of Iran’s major dams have run dry this summer, while major reservoirs are at 41 percent of capacity.

Iran has grappled with extreme heat waves and drought for years.

But the intensity of this summer’s heat, combined with power and water outages, is a turning point, said Nima Shokri, an expert on water and soil at the Hamburg University of Technology in Germany.

“If things continue on this path, Iran is likely to face even more frequent and compounded crises, with heat waves, droughts and blackouts threatening not just the economy, but social stability and regional security,” he said.

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has acknowledged to local news media the need to overhaul water management and reduce energy consumption. He has also stressed that cutting water on top of the daily power cuts was necessary.

“We are in a situation where we are forced,” he said. “We cannot avoid cutting off the water.”

Amir AghaKouchak, an environmental expert and civil engineer at the University of California at Irvine, said years of drought had compounded poor government decision-making — such as draining groundwater for farming or piping water into central desert regions to support water-intensive industries like steel production.

“Water and energy are closely related, often forming a vicious cycle,” he said, as heat waves increase demand for water and power, while drought and low reservoir levels reduce hydroelectric power, causing blackouts.

Neighboring Iraq has also been facing nationwide power outages amid scorching heat, while Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul is at risk of running dry.

The city’s water authority told the Iranian news outlet Tabnak that the dam currently holds only half the volume it had last year and had reached a “dead storage level,” meaning the dam can no longer provide residents with water.

Without broader improvements for managing water and reducing wasteful consumption, the government’s measures to cut usage will provide only momentary relief, said Mr. Shokri, the water and soil expert.

“They’re little more than a Band-Aid,” he said. As long as the root causes remain unaddressed, he warned, these temporary solutions risk “quietly pushing the country — and potentially the broader region — toward the next crisis.”