Download Position Paper

Topic: Global Water Crisis
Country: The Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran is lying in the arid and semi-arid countries of the world in which only has an average
of 250 mm of rain falls throughout the year. Therefore as a whole, Iran is facing limited
water resources nowadays.
With the rapid growth of population, hygiene development, agriculture and industry
extension while having insufficient location, as well as periodical precipitation, increase
the water demand, cause the widening gap between supply and demand of this valuable
material in the future, and make the approach towards an economical planning for water
resources, with an optimal allocation of funding more difficult.
The costs and prices for water are increasing, with the problem of water shortage. Iran
needs better governance of financing water infrastructure and cooperate with other
countries for sustainable means of financing water in the country.
For water supply and sanitation policy, Deputy Ministry for Urban and Rural Water and
Wastewater Management is in charge of setting sector policies, while the Deputy
Ministry of Water Affairs is in charge of water resources management, together with
eleven Regional Water Boards. Environmental Protection Organization is in charge of
water pollution control; lastly the Ministry of Health and Medical Education is
responsible for setting drinking water quality standards, as well as monitoring and
enforcing them.
There were two projects carried out concerning the water problem in Iran, Ahvaz and
Shiraz Water Supply and Sanitation Project, and Tehran Sewerage Project. The former
one was supported by a US$ 279m loan approved in 2004 and closed in 2009 while the
latter one was supported by a US$ 145m loan and closed in 2008.
These two projects differ in the aims, Ahvaz and Shiraz Water Supply and Sanitation
Project aimed at improving access to satisfactory water supply and significantly
increasing coverage of sanitation services, as well as the environmental, hygiene and
health conditions, it promotes the reuse of treated effluents.
Tehran Sewerage Project aimed at improving the environmental conditions in the Greater
Tehran area through the installation of wastewater collection and treatment facilities and
also public health. It enabled unrestricted irrigation practices in the surrounding areas. In
Iran, there are 42 large dams under operation with a combined storage capacity of 33
BCM/year .These are multi-purpose dams for hydropower, irrigation, flood control and in
some cases ,drinking water supply. Most drinking water in Iran is supplied through
modern infrastructure, such as dams, reservoirs, long-distance transmission pipelines.
Karez systems in the plateau regions of Iran in Yazd, Khorasan and Kerman - are still in
use today for irrigation and drinking water supply in rural areas and small towns. There is
an estimation of 500,000 deep and shallow wells in the country; the main well depth is
more than 360 meters and 45 kilometers in length.
Iran is being the 18th largest country in the world, with an area of 1,648,195 km2 and
having over 74 million populations. The northern part of Iran is mainly rain forests, while
the eastern part consists mostly of desert basins. The east only consists of some salt lakes,
which are not suitable for agricultural and domestic uses. Near the Caspian Sea, rainfall
averages about 1,280 mm per year, but in the Central Plateau and in the lowlands to the
south it seldom exceeds 100 mm. In short, the water resources in Iran are unevenly
distributed and the supply of water is not sufficient.
According to the Environmental Information Portal published by the Earth Trends, the
surface water produced internally is only 97 cubic kilometers. The main uses of water
resources in Iran are for agriculture, industries and domestic uses which are 92%, 6% and
2% respectively. Since the above human activities will produce large amount of waste
water, the water pollution problem in the country is getting more serious. Water pollution
is caused by industrial and agricultural sewages. The collected sewage is discharged
without any treatment and this has been a major source of pollution to groundwater and a
risk to public health. Having 0.7% of annual growth rate in population, Iran is facing
severe water shortage problem. By the summer of 2001, Iran had faced a three-year
drought, being the worst in her history.
It has been a weakness for Iran is its natural resources – water. Iran has a total area of
1,648,195 kilo meter square, but only 0.7% of it is covered by water. It is mainly because
of the climate and geography of Iran, where its climate ranges from arid or semiarid and
only has an average of 250 mm rain falls throughout the year. And the eastern part of Iran
consists mostly of desert basins such as the Dasht-e Kavir, Iran's largest desert. To
conclude, Iran is facing serious water problem that is has limited water resources.
Moreover, the population of Iran is 74.7 million, keep increasing each year. The demand
of water is kept increasing and Iran’s limited water resources could not satisfy it. The
water in Iran mainly used for agricultural, domestic and industrial use. If there are lack of
water resources, will cause serious affect to agricultural, domestic and industrial
development, the development of the whole country may also affected or even stop. So it
is a very serious and urgent problem of Iran.
But every coin has two sides. One of the greatest edges of Iran is its natural resources.
Iran is the world's fourth largest producer, and fifth largest exporter of oil. It has the
second largest proven reserves of oil in the world behind Saudi Arabia and is ranked
second in Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for the largest oil exporter.
Comparing with the peak of six million barrels per day reached in 1974, Iran produced
4.2 million barrels per day since technology draggle and mainly is to generate energy. For
natural gas, it has the world's second largest reserves (15.8% of the world's total); are
exploited primarily for domestic use and it became the main energy in 2007 onwards.
Moreover, Iranian production of natural gas is expected to increase over the next few
years due to continuing discoveries in the North Pars and South Pars regions. Since the
great advantage of natural resources due to energy and the great demand of energy in the
global, Iran can generate great income by trading and exporting oil and natural gas. It can
definitely help the economical development of Iran that exporting these resources being
the main character of IRAN’s GDP. In fact, at 2007, Iran had earned $70 billion
in foreign exchange reserves mostly (80%) from crude oil exports. In 2009 GDP was
$336 billion. In 2008, Iran's official annual growth rate was 6%.
Since Iran holds a large amount of natural resources like cruel oil and natural gas with
great demands in global, it builds an awareness, bargaining power and influence in the
global for Iran. If Iran stops exporting these resources, will creates a serious worldwide
economic crisis due to the supply of oil decrease. One of the famous examples Iran- Iraq
war in the 1980s. The price of oil per barrel increased to $36 USD from $15 USD. It
created a huge problem of the worldwide economic. Having the resource of oil means
Iran holds political chips amount the countries.
Since the development of nuclear power, Iran is facing criticizes from different countries
especially The United State America. Developing nuclear power can help Iran to develop
new way to generate energy but the global worries that it will turn into nuclear weapon
and threaten the worlds stably. The UN Security Council to impose sanctions against
Iran on select companies linked to this program, thus furthering its economic isolation on
the international scene. It stagnate the economic growth of Iran.
The most imperative need is to get rid of the water scarcity in Iran and to concentrate
more on the integrated water and land management, emphasizing on the agricultural
water management as well. In order to promote a better quality of water productivity in
Iran, Iran suggested the following recommendations.
First is to boost the improvement on the irrigation management as Iran mainly focuses on
agriculture which uses the water most. So only under a better irrigation management
with an appropriate irrigation networks renovation could be able to allow the proper
access of sufficient water to different part of Iran.
Second is to improve the cultivation activities in Iran by changing the pattern of crops as
they are the Iranians’ foodstuffs. Iranian should try to switch to crops with less water
consumption in order to have more harvest as now Iran is just having 5.5 to 6 million
hectares per year. Besides, Iran should also grow more crops with higher yield and
income so as to earn a better living instead of living hand to mouth.
Third, Iran should attempt to apply the modern irrigation methods widely. As the
investigation in Iran shows in 2005 that could pressurize the irrigation systems which can
save water consumption up to 30 to 60% and could lead to an increase in agricultural
production up to 20 to 70% in 2006.
In order to tackle the global water crisis, nations must be corporative in solving the
strategic problem as well as raising the awareness of the issue.