Earlier, Iran’s Deputy Energy Minister, Rahim Meidani, had noted that this year’s drought is unprecedented in the past 50 years. Noting that there has been no good rainfall in the current Iranian calendar year, he said the situation in provinces located in arid and semi-arid areas such as Markazi, Qom, Semnan, Tehran, Alborz, and Isfahan provinces is way different than winters of few years ago.