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Unprecedented drought pushes Iran's southeast to brink

A new, grim estimate says Iran's already underdeveloped Sistan-Baluchistan province will have to brace not only for a worsening water crisis but for ripple effects as well, including severe economic and social repercussions.

Iran drought
An Iranian girl walks across the Zayandeh Rud river in Isfahan, which now runs dry due to water extraction before it reaches the city on April 11, 2018. — ATTA KENARE/AFP via Getty Images

The director of the state-run Office for Meteorology in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan province has painted one of the bleakest pictures ever for the impoverished area's water shortages.

According to Mohsen Heydari, all-time low precipitation over the past months is only complicating the consequences of a decade-long drought in the region. Heydari told Iran's Tasnim News Agency that over 95% of the entire province is now effectively engulfed by drought.

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