Over 23 years have passed since the beginning of Iran’s first water shortage crisis (after the Islamic Revolution) in 2000. It was for the first time in the history of Iran that the Sistan Plain and Hamoun Lake dried up.

At that time, few people thought that this situation could continue and slowly spread to other provinces, but the speed of the water scarcity crisis in Iran was so high that in two decades, the most water-rich province of the country (Khuzestan) was highly affected, as well as Isfahan, Kerman, etc.

According to published reports, Shahrekord, the capital of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, which was home to the most abundant river in the Central Plateau of Iran, faced a water cut for more than 10 days at the end of this summer (September 22). Moreover, West Azarbaijan and Hamadan provinces spent hot summer days by distributing water with tankers.

Although the hot season is over and more rains occurred in the first half of November in most parts of the country, this amount of rain does not in any way indicate the elimination of the risk of water shortage in the country, and solutions to overcome the crisis should be seriously considered.

But what really caused Iran to suddenly face such crises in less than 5 decades, even though it was among semi-desert countries and had more than 2,500 years of written history, and was known as the oldest civilization in the world? Investigating the roots of this situation can be at least a step to correcting and compensating for the lost resources.

 Unbalanced development plans

Until the 1970s, development was considered an economic phenomenon only, and it was often assumed that economic growth would bring greater economic equality and that this equality would destroy poverty, a researcher, Amirhossein Gholamzadeh Natanzi wrote, IRNA reported on Saturday.

Therefore, in 1957, they defined growth or development as an increase in the per capita production of goods. But in 1975, UNESCO stated that development should be integrated and should be a comprehensive and multifaceted process that includes all aspects of social life, its relations with the outside world, and conscience and awareness. This meaning of development required an “adjustment process”.

What has been noticed about the concept of development today is that one should look at development in a comprehensive and balanced way and consider all its economic, political, and social aspects. These dimensions of three sides become a triangle, each of which has no meaning without the other, and because man is the central factor of development, he has a multi-dimensional reality and has countless desires, needs, and abilities, development will also be multi-dimensional and not just a one-dimensional approach on economic development. In this way, balanced development means that economic, political, and social dimensions should be taken into account in the development and progress of a society.

On the other hand, it is “unbalanced development” which means promoting or valuing one of these three dimensions too much without paying attention to the others.

Which unbalanced programs led to drought exacerbation?

The emergence of industries without considering climate resilience is one of the most important reasons for the advent of drought and in other words the change in the country’s climate. More importantly, programs, many of which started before 1979, and many others launched much faster in the 1990s-2010s.

For example, 47,000 wells were dug in the country until 1971 to exploit the underground water resources and as a result to develop the agricultural and industrial sectors and increase the per capita income of the country. This number reached a shocking number of 162,000 wells in the 1980s, increasing about 3.5 times.

The increasing number of wells in 1990 surpassed 225,000, and it is still increasing despite the drought, amounting to 450,000 in 2002; and 736,000 in 2012.

According to experts’ predictions, wells has exceeded one million by 2022. Although, this is the number of legal wells across the country and the number of illegal ones is much more than what is shown in these statistics.

Considering these figures and the country’s area, it shows that in 50 years, one well has been dug for every 1.6 square kilometers.

Also, despite the land subsidence, which has turned into a sinkhole in some cases (Kaboodar Ahang in Hamadan and Eij in Fars province), they are still trying to dig wells to solve the problem of water scarcity and supply drinking water.

Considering the ratio of wells per square kilometer in the country, it can be realized that the country’s surface is not able to hold water, not even can bear this volume of construction, and many parts of the country can be swallowed up at any moment.

Even Tehran is subsiding up to 24 centimeters every year, which is horrible.

The next unbalanced program is the excessive development of water industries and the cultivation of agricultural products in desert areas. Unfortunately, under the pretext of employment and entrepreneurship as well as achieving self-sufficiency, industries were established in the country, which greatly fueled the decline of water resources and exacerbated the water crisis of the country.

For example, there are 212 steel and iron smelting factories with the highest water consumption, most of which are located in the desert and water-scarce areas of the country, such as Isfahan, Yazd, Razavi Khorasan, Tehran, East Azerbaijan, Kerman, etc. Such a situation can be considered in the case of tile-making, and stone-cutting industries.

Water-intensive agriculture

According to the studies, 1,300 liters of water is used to produce one kilogram of wheat.

According to the latest figures of wheat production with irrigated cultivation in the crop year 2018-2019, which was the second most produced crop in the country after fodder corn, it is estimated at 8.3 million tons, which is very huge.

Self-sufficiency in the production of wheat and rice is exactly like a fire that is being extinguished by gasoline.

Now is the time when all the warnings of experts two decades ago have come true, and maybe there is still a way to compensate, which can only be obtained from the heart of scientific activities and programs and the opinion of academic experts.

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Speaking in the meeting with Khorasan Razavi Chamber of Commerce officials in the city of Mashhad, Mr. Kahiluoto pointed to the good relations between the two countries and blamed sanctions for decline in the economic ties of the two countries but expressed hope soon an opening would happen in this relation.

He announced readiness of Embassy of Finland in Tehran for preparing the ground for restoration and keeping the ties and interactions for better days especially in the economic issues.

He then elaborated economic capacities of his country and said that Finland is an EU member located in the north of the European continent and it is considered as one of the leading countries in the fields of sustainable energies, protection of resources and environment, and development of the knowledge-based infrastructures and technology. He added that Finland in the issues like creativity and renovation, digital infrastructures, industrial and logistic equipment and it has good capabilities.

Kahiluoto then said that Finland can share its experience with Iran and especially with Mashhad in the field of water resources management. He then pointed to the issue of reconstruction of Afghanistan and said that this issue will definitely be the main issue in the world and Khorasan Razavi Province which has a good strategic geographical position can play constructive role in this regard.

He then pointed to the growing number of young work force in the world and announced readiness of Finland to have good cooperation with Iran and especially Razavi Khorasan Province in terms of exchange and training specialized forces.

He reiterated that there are good capacities for more cooperation between Iran and Finland in this field.

Meanwhile in the meeting, Head of Iran-Finland Joint Chamber of Commerce Mr. Gholam-Hossein Jamili, for his part, said that the meeting was aimed at for acquaintance for capacities of the two countries for joint cooperation, adding that the current trade volume between the two countries is not acceptable but the current trade balance has good potentials especially the Finnish tend to buy Iranian products.

He added that Finland has progressed significantly in science and technology and especially in the food industries and hi-techs and expressed hope the economic cooperation between the two countries would broaden. He hailed the positive efforts of the Finnish ambassador in painting true picture of Iran and its economic capacities and expressed hope such visits and meetings can lead to more acquaintance and interactions between the two states.

Jamili announced readiness of the private sector of Iran and especially Khorasan Razavi for interactions with Finland.

Later Mohammad Reza Tavakolizadeh, a member of presiding board of Khorasan Razavi Chamber of Commerce, highlighted properties of Khorasan Razavi and called the province a special one in the country, adding that almost 90% of industries in this area belong to the private sector and the private sector plays a very valuable and colorful role in the field of industry. He noted steel, concrete and machinery are major active heavy industries in this province and expressed hope cooperation between this province and Finland in different fields would happen.

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Last week, President Ebrahim Raisi referred to the issue of water scarcity across the country, calling all sectors to find a wise and long-term solution to the issue.

Expert studies show that between 70 to 90 percent of the country’s water resources is used in the agricultural sector annually, according to the National Agricultural Research Centre.

Part of this huge amount of water consumption is related to the improper cultivation pattern that has been going on for years, regardless of the country’s capacities and priorities. But the other part is concerned with the traditional method of irrigation, which is centuries old and still runs in many parts of the country, a method that wastes a lot of water and also causes floods and landslides.

Modern irrigation methods have different types, including surface irrigation and pressurized irrigation.

Surface irrigation is where water is applied and distributed over the soil surface by gravity. It is by far the most common form of irrigation throughout the world and has been practiced in many areas virtually unchanged for thousands of years.

In pressurized irrigation systems, water is pressurized and precisely applied to the plants under pressure through a system of pipes. Pressurized irrigation systems, as opposed to surface irrigation systems, are more effective in the application of irrigation water to crops.

New irrigation methods (especially drip irrigation) have been introduced in the world since 1950 and have entered the Iranian agricultural industry since 1969.

Currently, 2.4 million hectares of agricultural land are equipped with pressurized irrigation systems, but we are still a long way from reaching the figure of 9 million hectares.

Out of 164 hectares of agricultural land, about 20 hectares are cultivated.

Since the agricultural sector is the largest and most important water consumer in Iran, any action is necessary to stop the “80 percent loss of water resources” which is mainly caused by the lack of use of advanced irrigation technologies.

On the other hand, one of the problems for farmers in changing the irrigation method is the high cost of its equipment, which apparently the government was supposed to have an 85 percent share in the financing, but so far this has not been achieved.

It seems that the national water council, the Center for Strategic Studies, the Vice Presidency for Science and Technology, the ministries of Energy and Agriculture, with the cooperation of other sectors, can change irrigation methods in less than two years.

In particular, they should address the issue of reforming the irrigation method so that the result will be huge savings in annual water consumption and Iran’s agriculture and environment will be partially out of the crisis.

Water resources declining

Renewable water resources have decreased by 30 percent over the last four decades, while Iran’s population has increased by about 2.5 times, Qasem Taqizadeh, deputy minister of energy, has said.

A recent report by Nature Scientific Journal on Iran’s water crisis indicates that from 2002 to 2015, over 74 billion cubic meters have been extracted from aquifers, which is unprecedented and its revival takes thousands of years along with urgent action.

Three Iranian scientists studied 30 basins in the country and realized that the rate of aquifer depletion over a 14-year period has been about 74 billion cubic meters, which is recently published in Nature Scientific Journal.

Also, over-harvesting in 77 percent of Iran has led to more land subsidence and soil salinity. Research and statistics show that the average overdraft from the country’s aquifers was about 5.2 billion cubic meters per year.

Mohammad Darvish, head of the environment group in the UNESCO Chair on Social Health that the situation of groundwater resources is worrisome.

The report notes that Iran’s water consumption has increased due to a significant increase in legal and illegal wells, the expansion of agricultural land, and increasing livelihood dependence on water and soil resources in agriculture, livestock, and poultry, which are mainly caused by human factors, Darvish noted.

The statistic is unprecedented, as the total reservoirs of all dams in the country have a capacity of about 50 billion cubic meters; In other words, in the last 14 years, 22 billion cubic meters more than the capacity of all dams have been extracted from the country’s underground sources, he explained.

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Also, a number of rural infrastructural projects were put into operation concurrent with the Government Week.

On the sidelines of his visit to the exhibition, President Rouhani pointed to the development of Chabahar port in Sistan and Baluchestan province and said, “development of Chabahar port in this southern province was a giant task which was developed by three countries of Iran, Afghanistan and India as a joint venture.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rouhani pointed to the project of railway construction in this province and added, “construction of railway has started from Chabahar to Zahedan which will be connected to the nationwide railway.”

He seized the opportunity to express his special thanks to the Armed forces, Army, and IRGC for their efforts toward materializing most objectives in this province.

President Rouhani then ordered the construction of power-supply project to 46 villages, water-supply project to 35 villages, seven healthcare and treatment centers, and the access of 419 rural areas to the National Information Network.

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