Iran is no more than five years away from a “general water disaster.”

A conference held to examine the water situation in eastern Iran presented a horrifying picture of the water shortage crisis in the region. One speaker said that Iran is not far from a general water disaster.

The National Conference on Water Management in Eastern Iran was held last night, Wednesday, January 2, at the Khorasan Razavi Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines. One of the speakers at the conference was Mohammad Hossein Shariatmadar, head of the National Center for Strategic Studies of Agriculture and Water of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Iran.

According to the state-run IRNA news agency, Shariatmadar warned at the conference about the water shortage crisis in the region, saying: "We are only five years away from a general water disaster in the country, which is the result of 50 years of mismanagement in this area."

He considered it possible to organize, restore, and revive water resources in Iran, but at the same time emphasized: "We have not yet reached sufficient will to solve this problem and we lack a comprehensive, inclusive, and national strategy with an appropriate timing and consensus between the government and the private sector in this regard."

Like most countries in the region, Iran has been struggling for years with the problem of long-term drought, reduced rainfall, and the consequences of climate change. However, senior officials in the Islamic Republic acknowledge that mismanagement, inefficient management, and incorrect policies have played a decisive role in the crisis of this situation.

Admitting the role of mismanagement and wrong policies

In June of this year, Issa Kalantari, Vice President and Head of the Environmental Protection Organization, cited "one-sidedness" in environmental policies over the past four decades as the reason why 70 percent of Iran's population is exposed to water scarcity.

According to ISNA news agency, Kalantari says that since the establishment of the Islamic Republic government, "due to ignorance and lack of awareness," development has always been placed against the environment and sustainable development has not been given attention.

Referring to the excessive use of renewable water resources, the Vice President said that according to global standards, this rate should not exceed 40 percent, while in Iran it reaches an average of 110 percent.

At the aforementioned conference, the secretary of the Groundwater Restoration and Balancing Plan criticized the excessive extraction of groundwater and noted that Khorasan Razavi accounts for 21% of the country's groundwater reservoir deficit.

Over-extraction of groundwater

Explaining this situation, Abdullah Fazeli noted that in the three provinces of Khorasan and Sistan and Baluchestan, eight and a half billion cubic meters of groundwater are extracted annually, and this figure should be a maximum of five billion cubic meters.

Fazeli stated that we are witnessing a half-meter decline in the aquifers of these four eastern provinces annually and said: "The government and other forces alone cannot solve the country's water shortage problem, and there is no way other than the participation of stakeholders to achieve this."

In recent years and months, farmers and residents of some cities who are considered "beneficiaries" of efficient water use, such as farmers around Isfahan, have protested and continue to protest inter-basin water transfer plans and failure to respect their water rights, but instead of participating, the government has dispatched law enforcement to suppress and confront them.

Some government officials claim that by setting up desalination facilities on the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of ​​Oman and transferring water to provinces such as Khorasan, the water shortage crisis can be addressed and prevented from turning into a disaster.

Continuation of ineffective plans and policies

Mohammad Hossein Papli Yazdi, a professor at Tarbiat Modares University in Tehran, criticized plans such as the plan to transfer water from the Sea of ​​Oman to Khorasan Razavi at a conference on Wednesday night, saying: "Show me a country that has desalinated water and transported it a thousand kilometers away for consumption, then do this. The maximum distance that freshwater has been transferred in the world has been 100 kilometers."

Despite the admissions of officials and warnings from experts about the consequences of mismanagement and disregard for the environment in development plans, this situation continues, and policies that experts consider incorrect continue to be put on the agenda.

Referring to this situation, Gholamhossein Shafei, head of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, said: "We have no plan and all our moves are made with our eyes closed; for example, in Khorasan Razavi Province, in most villages where drinking water is supplied by tankers, we are developing industries that pose a dangerous future."

Step by step towards disaster

In June, Issa Kalantari criticized the continued disregard for "territorial planning," citing Isfahan as an example, where, according to him, several million residents face a shortage of drinking water, even though Iran's most water-intensive industries have been established there.

Many experts believe that incorrect policies such as excessive dam construction, disregard for optimal water use in agriculture, and excessive use of renewable water and groundwater resources, which have led to the subsidence of plains and the drying up of lakes and wetlands, will lead to the spread of water-related displacement and wars and conflicts over water in the coming years.

The eastern regions of Iran have long witnessed the emptying of villages in Sistan and Baluchestan and the displacement of tens, if not hundreds, of their residents to the outskirts of other cities; cities that, if they are not already facing serious water shortages, will soon face them as population and consumption increase, and a "general water disaster" will occur.

Source: DW