THE SIGNS OF WATER CRISIS IN IRAN

1. Rising water demand and shortage

2. Declining groundwater levels

3. Deteriorating water quality

4. Increasing ecosystem losses

THE MAIN CAUSES FOR WATER SCARCITY IN IRAN

NATURAL

• Rapid urbanization along with population growth
• Unsuitable geographical distribution across the country
• Iran’s geographic and climatic condition as a country in the arid and semi-arid region of the world
• Climate change and consecutive droughts

MANAGERIAL

• Irregular water consumption and increasing demand
• water supply-demand imbalance
• Mismanagement of water resources
• Improper development of agriculture section along with unsuitable cropping pattern in agriculture
• Water pollution
• Over-withdrawal of groundwater
• Inefficient agriculture and traditional irrigation systems
• Dam construction without paying enough attention to technical, economic and environmental issues
• Industrialization
• Lack of awareness to virtual water
• Lack of efficient laws
• The low price of water

THESE ARE THE SOLUTIONS OR EXIT STRATEGIES WHICH DISCUSSED BY EXPERTS

SHORT-TERM SOLUTIONS

• The government and the municipality should increase the price charge of the water consumption for each changing the perspective of them that water is not free and not an endless resource.
• The strict monitoring to put a stop to withdrawing the groundwater.
• Employing the technologies which recycle the water.
• Put a stop on the construction of Dams.
• Use of desalination technology converting the sea water in fresh water in southern coasts.
• Cloud Seed Technology

LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS

• The government must prepare to communicate the new structural set of rules and regulation regarding the management and consumption of water resources to each citizen and entities involved in the process.
• Water and energy prices should raise meaningfully to reflect the time cost of water and energy in each region across the country encourage both water consumers and program operators to involved in the process.
• Changing the cultural pattern of consuming water in agricultural society.
• Long-term and continuous watch on groundwater withdrawal
• The government could help to teach the agriculture society to focus on the land they use for growing instead of miss-use of water.
• Recognized for their success in regulation, allocation, and treading water long time ago, the government of Iran should implement efficient water market
• Revision of cropping pattern in agriculture concerning food security
• Change in country’s policies on geographical distribution of population
• Supporting of farmers and rural community by investment in agriculture section to enhance the efficiency
• Building a water database controlling the statistic parameters of water resources both for consumers and operators.