Iran resorts to cloud-seeding and prayer to end devastating drought
Worshippers offer a prayer for rain at the shrine of Saint Saleh in Tehran, Iran, Friday. AP-Yonhap
Iran has resorted to cloud-seeding operations and prayers in an attempt to bring much-needed rain as a devastating drought continues.
The Donya-e-Eqtesad economic daily reported on Monday that aircraft sprayed chemicals into clouds over the dried-up Lake Urmia in the north-western province of West Azerbaijan.
Prayers for rain were held on Friday in Tehran, which has been particularly hard hit by the water shortage.
Critics have accused the government of ignoring scientific expertise. Even state-run media outlets have described the drought as a national catastrophe.
Islamic hardliners and certain clerics have laid responsibility for the drought at the door of what they see as an "un-Islamic" lifestyle, in Tehran in particular.
"Without doubt, human sinfulness is taking its effect on the reduction of divine gifts, such as rain," legislator Kamran Ghasanfari said, singling out women for failing to cover their hair in public for particular blame.
There is rising panic in the population in the face of dried up reservoirs, and the government is taking drastic steps.
The Energy Ministry plans to disconnect the water supply in Tehran and other regions for around 11 hours overnight.
President Masoud Pezeshkian has suggested the possibility of evacuating the capital's 15 million residents, but this option is seen within the government as unrealistic.