Firsthand accounts reveal how severe water and electricity shortages are disrupting daily life across Iran, with blackouts causing life-threatening accidents and hardship for vulnerable families.
In one video, a woman with a broken leg, filmed in a hospital, pleads with officials to step aside if they cannot provide basic services.
“Why in the 21st century should we have power outages?” she asks. “If you can’t run the country properly, you better get lost.”
She explains that her diabetes requires overnight monitoring before surgery.
Another clip shows a woman describing repeated falls in the dark. Pointing to a cane on the floor, she says: “Now I have to move around with this. I swear to God I don’t even have a single rial to go to the doctor and get an X-ray.”
Other footage shows a man trapped in an elevator after a sudden outage, urging that buildings be equipped with emergency systems to prevent such dangers.
Daily disruptions
From Sari to Mashhad, residents describe routine blackouts at night and during business hours.
A young man in Sari says the power cuts every evening from 9 to 11 p.m., while a merchant in Mashhad films a bazaar left in darkness.
“Look at the bazaar,” he says. “How can these people make a living and pay their rent?”
In Tehran, a customer records shoppers enduring stifling heat in a hypermarket after air conditioning and lighting failed.
“This place used to be cool and comfortable, but now everything is off,” he says. “People are forced to shop in this unbearable heat.”
Official response
Energy Minister Abbas Ali Abadi has promised improvements.
“Soon the water situation will improve, the gas situation will improve, and weather conditions will also cooperate,” he said this week, before adding the telling qualification: “God willing.”
But Iran’s reliance on decades-old thermal power plants—still providing over 80% of electricity—alongside shrinking hydroelectric capacity due to prolonged droughts has left the grid deeply vulnerable.
Spring hydro output has collapsed from about 6,500–7,000 megawatts to only 2,500.
Public embarrassment
The crisis has also spilled onto national television.
One widely shared clip shows a state broadcast plunging into darkness shortly after a lawmaker claimed an alleged Israeli pilot’s “confession” would soon air.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry mocked the scene on X, posting in Persian: “Just make sure the power doesn’t go out in the middle of broadcasting the confession.”
