How To Deal With Water Scarcity In The Islamic Republic of Iran?

Sayyed Ahang Kowsar

Fars Research Center for Agriculture and Natural ResourShiraz , I.R. Iran

Presented by: Mazda Kompanizare and Shahla Asgharinia

• Earth, air and fire were the other substances besides water, which the ancient Persians used to believe that everything else was made of; therefore, desecrating them was considered an unforgivable sin.

• Water should be used as a medium to promote peace and construction in the world. The inhabitants of the planet Earth should contribute to an invest in the great number of trans-border rivers and watersheds.

Main Topics

• Water in I.R.Iran• Historical background that has lead to the present bind• What Policies Can the I.R. Iran Adopt To Cope With Water

Scarcity?– Collecting adequate and clear information– Promoting our Knowledge– Changing our beliefs– Managing our consumptions– Legislating the rules and observing the rights– Environmental compatibility of the productions– Recharging of groundwater– Restoring some native methods

• The future prospects and opportunities for collaboration

Water in Iran 439

(Km3)271mm on 1,620,703 km2

Mean Annual Precipitation

51 (Km3)

Natural RechargeOf Groundwater

296 (Km3)

evapo-transpiration

60(Km3)

Extracted fromGroundwater

81 (Km3)

Surface flows

5 (Km3)

net outflow to the neighboring countries

63(Km3)

drained into the Persian Gulf ,the Oman and Caspian Seas ,

and numerous salt lakes ,marshes, and playas

Water uses:Agriculture )about 95 %(,

Industry )1%( ,Domestic use )4%( .

18(Km3)

Extracted fromSurface water

-9 (Km3)

negativeGroundwater

balance

• Sedentarization of nomad pastoralists (in 1930) has been an exercise in futility, and this has been concisely spelled out in a recent document by the United Nations (Adeel et al., 2009). Unfortunately, decision-makers in drylands are neither ecologist nor heed their consultation! They cannot grasp the basic concepts of the carrying capacity.

• The ill-conceived and badly executed politically expedient Land Reform Law of 9 January 1962, and Additional Articles to it of 1962 and 1963, dealt the second serious blow to our natural resources.

– Specifying that each of the 50,000 farming communities (McLachlan,1968) will be allocated twice the area of its farm fields

– resorting to wells with the catastrophic desiccation of qanats.– infringing the right of nomad graziers

• Dietary changes, after the land reform:– growing rice in unsuitable climates with more than 20,000 m3ha-1, out of 25,000  m3ha-1 water

waste for unsuitable condition

• Starting to foster self-sufficiency in wheat and red meat in late 1970s: encouraged illegal expropriators to continue to overexploit the remaining land (Adeel et al., 2008).

• Hydropower generation has been another huge drain on our water resources.– It is ironic that in an oil and gas exporting country, the limited surface water resources should be

wasted to produce heat.

• The recent blanket issuance of permits for the illegally bored wells (upwards of 190,000, countrywide), decided by the majority vote in the House, is tantamount to rewarding the lawbreakers!

Historical background that has lead to the present bind

What Policies Can the I.R. Iran Adopt To Cope With Water Scarcity?

Collecting adequate and clear Information:

• Transparency. The true costs of dams and their water delivery systems should be given to provide a solid baseline against which other available alternatives to supply and store water may be assessed.

• Assessing environmental impacts and non-tangible

costs. Desiccation of numerous lakes, wetlands and aquifers due to the damming of their contributing rivers has occurred in the I.R.Iran. Land subsidence due to the over-drafting of fine-grained aquifers is rampant in many plains of this country. Water users’ security is at risk due to the mismanagement of surface and groundwaters..

What Policies Can the I.R. Iran Adopt To Cope With Water Scarcity?

Promoting our knowledge:

• Science-based policy-making. policy-making should be assigned to water scientists

• Education. Including community leaders in decision-making is a hand-on method of educating the public in water resources management. Policy-makers and water-related civil servants should be “indoctrinated” in water affairs.

• Capacity building. As it is advocated spate irrigation

and ARG as opposed to building large dams, specialized training should be provided for the designers and practitioners of floodwater harvesting for those purposes.

.

What Policies Can the I.R. Iran Adopt To Cope With Water Scarcity?

Changing our beliefs:

• Water valorization. The real costs of water resources development and delivery is never extracted from the users.

• Carrying capacity. The water availability should be regarded as the topmost criterion for planning any development project in arid countries.

.

What Policies Can the I.R. Iran Adopt To Cope With Water Scarcity?

Managing our Consumptions:

• Family planning. The steep rise in our population is becoming more than the carrying capacity of our water resources. Achieving zero population growth may save us from certain demise.

• Improving water use efficiency. Achieving food security through selection and development of high-yielding, stress-resistant varieties of small grains for food and feed

• Domestic water utilization. Per capita

consumption of 20 liters per day provides a healthy share for a clean living. It is 340 liters per day in Shiraz ! .

What Policies Can the I.R. Iran Adopt To Cope With Water Scarcity?

Legislating the rules and Observing the rights:

• Respecting riparian and prior appropriation rights. It should be understood that water belongs to the land and not to its present occupier. A severe decline in watertables resulting from damming the rivers that recharged the aquifers, and drilling wells that interfere with the yield of aquifers, is also considered usurpation.

• Withdrawal= Artificial Recharge of Groundwater. Groundwater users’ obligation is to recharge their aquifers as much as they withdraw from them.

• Termination of subsidizing electricity for pumping water. Charging the real cost of production and delivery would persuade irrigators to improve their WUE.

• Financial responsibility. An aquifer is not a common pool resource; thus, only those who pay for its recharge and maintenance should have the right to water extraction.

• Enforcing laws and regulations.  No one should be allowed to pump or divert more water than his/her permit allows. Installation of tamper-proof water meters .

What Policies Can the I.R. Iran Adopt To Cope With Water Scarcity?

Environmental compatibility of the productions:

• Replacing wheat and barley production

with camel farming. Raising camels in our low gradient rangelands suitable for spate irrigation is a logical alternative to growing irrigated cereals for earning cash in warm and hot places.

• Agro-ecological zoning. Growing rice and corn in warm and hot deserts is illogical. In Iran, rice growing must be limited to the Caspian Sea Coast lowlands.

.

What Policies Can the I.R. Iran Adopt To Cope With Water Scarcity?

Recharge of groundwater:

• Floodwater harvesting for spate irrigation and artificial recharge of groundwater. This is the most appropriate technology for water development where

• potential aquifers (Coarse grained alluviums overlaying impervious marls in folded areas) and

• floodwater (Sporadic precipitations) are available.

.

What Policies Can the I.R. Iran Adopt To Cope With Water Scarcity?

Restoring some Native Methods

• Reinstatement of transhumant pastoralism. Provision of spate-irrigated fodder and basic amenities along the migration routes and campsites is persuasive in attracting the impoverished settled nomads to resume their previously healthy way of life.

• Rejuvenation of the desiccated qanats, rehabilitation of the ruined ones, and construction of new qanats. They are environmentally sustainable system for groundwater exploitation. It’s outflow is automatically adaptable with the aquifer storage.

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The future prospects and opportunities for collaboration

Arrangement of a Joint Studies in “ Investigation of Potential Freshwater Resources In the Persian

Gulf” based on the hypothesis presented by Farhoudi, Samani and Kowsar 1989

It is only a scientific suggestion which might end up in a policy initiative.

.

The future prospects and opportunities for collaboration

• Sharing our experiences in field of Artificial Recharge of Groundwater and Spate Irrigation with the rest of WANA countries.

Thanks for your kind Attention