After eight months in which schoolkids used to play soccer on the dry riverbed, upriver rainfall started water trickling and then flowing down the Zayandeh River through Esfahan last Monday. Thousands of residents poured onto the bridge and frolicked in the river, which is still only inches deep. For the last several years, the Zayandeh Rud has been completely dry each summer with water returning with winter rains. The summer dry spell is blamed on continuing drought and the diversion of water upstream. Esfahan Mayor Morteza Saqqaeian-nejad said a project to restore the river’s flow year-round would take seven years to implement in full.