1. “The days are gone when we
looked at the sky for rain!”
Quoted from the address delivered by
the deposed Shah at inauguration of
the Dez Dam that previously bore his name.
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger,
more complex, and more violent. It takes a
touch of genius -- and a lot of courage – to
move in the opposite direction."
Albert Einstein
Sayyed Ahang Kowsar
Fars Research Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources
Shiraz, I.R. Iran
How to deal with water scarcity in the Islamic Republic of Iran?
Water, in its liquid or frozen state, is the most precious commodity in the parched Land of
Iran. The magnificent temple of Anahita (the Angel of Water) near Kazeroun in southern
Iran is a reminder of the religious value that the Zoroastrians assigned to this vital
substance. 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. Irrigation of a drying field was a feat that made Ahura
Mazda (the supreme deity) extremely happy. Ahriman (the evil spirit, coeval with Ahura
Mazda), on the other hand, was accused of instigating droughts. Water security has been
the principal reason in site selection for establishing settlements on the Iranian Plateau.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that the isopleths of human population density so closely
resemble the isohyetal maps “that one might almost be justified in talking of
superimposition” (Behnam, 1968).
To answer the raised question in the title, one needs to contemplate the historical
background that has lead to the present bind. Therefore, I concentrate on the current state of
water and soil, our recently neglected coarse alluvial deposits, and how to optimize the
limited water resources at low cost and risk.
The mean annual precipitation (MAP) of 37 major watersheds of the Land of Iran with a
combined area of 1,620,703 km2 was 271 mm for the 1965-1995 period (Khalili, 2005),
which was about one third that of the planet Earth. Accepting these figures as accurate for
the sake of argument, Iran receives some 439 billion m3 (bm3) of the MAP. Furthermore, it
receives about 8 bm3 of the inflow from the neighboring countries while losing
approximately 13 bm3 to them. Of this volume, 296 bm3 is consumed in evapotranspiration,
and the remainder forms the 81 bm3 of surface flows, the direct recharge, and 18 bm3 of
recharge though the rivers. Although the annual direct and indirect recharge of the aquifers
is estimated at 51bm3, we extract around 60 bm3 per year from our under ground
resources. It is further estimated that in years having the “normal” depth of precipitation,
some 63 bm3 of water is drained into the Persian Gulf, the Oman and Caspian Seas, and
numerous salt lakes, marshes, and playas (Dr. Masoud Nejabat, personal communication).
1

2. In a very simplified categorization, the available surface and groundwater resources in the
I.R. Iran are used for agriculture (about 95 %), industry (1%), and domestic use (4%).
“Water is the number one limiting factor to crop yield worldwide, and agriculture is a large
consumer of water” (Mangan et al., 2010). As agriculture is the mainstay of a large
percentage of our rural population, and our food security depends on that sector, supplying
an ever increasing volume of water for food production is advocated by the large dam
builders. However, a small reduction in the agricultural water consumption through
improving water use efficiency (WUE), and increasing efficiency in delivering water and
energy services translate into a large gain in water and no need for more large dams (Totten
et al., 2010), particularly, when another alternative-artificial recharge of groundwater
(ARG)-is applicable. Thus, our greatest challenge is increasing agricultural productivity on
the existing farm fields while decreasing water delivery to them, and improving electrical
energy production, delivery and use. As our soils are mostly degraded, to earn the most
benefit from the limited volume of irrigation water we have to reclaim our drastically
disturbed land, and this may be achieved by spreading nutrient rich turbid floodwater on
the low gradient farm fields (Kowsar, 2008). Therefore, we may achieve water security
without jeopardizing our food production. This requires access to and the development of
drought–tolerant genotypes as well as practicing improved agronomic management
(Mangan et al., 2010).
Nomadic pastoralism was a way of life for some3.1 million (20.1 %) of Iranians in 1939
(Iranian Center for Statistics, as reported Najafi, 2004).According to the results of the 1956
census, of the 18,944,821 inhabitants of Iran, 69% lived in the country (Behnam, 1968).
Although the exact numbers of the villagers and the transhumant pastoralists are not
available, an educated guess puts the population of the latter group, who roamed the
wilderness in search of forage for their herds of sheep, goats and camels, at 3.2 million.
They produced the bulk of lamb, mutton, goat and camel meat, and dairy products,
particularly butter and ghee. Beef and poultry were produced at very limited scales, mostly
by the villagers. Furthermore, the nomads dry-farmed small plots beyond the reach of the
settled growers, mostly in highlands, and relatively large fields in their wintering areas.
Mobile pastoralism, which has been demonstrated by the Iranian nomads from time
immemorial, is environmentally sustainable, financially sound, and socially acceptable in
desert ecosystems (Davies, 2008; Adeel et al., 2007). In fact, the early settlers of our
country called their new home Irana, the Land of Arians (nomads in Old Parsi). As
precipitation in the nomads' habitat was inadequate for a sedentary way of life, they learned
that they had to obey the dictates of nature (Tannehill, 1947). They had to make use of high
mobility to adapt to the ever-changing dynamics of grasslands (Vetaas and Knudson,
2004). Moreover, their life in tents forced them to avoid exposure to extreme temperatures.
Therefore, they moved between northerly summer camp sites and pastures at higher
altitudes and lower, southerly sites in winter. By doing so, they utilized hundreds of
thousands of square kilometers for grazing in order to maintain stock numbers in
equilibrium with pasture productivity. Nomads spread their herds evenly across the
landscape, thus caused less damage to the soil (Coughenour et al., 1985). Overgrazing was
considered a sacrilege (Adeel et al., 2008).
It has been shown that the nomadic livestock systems are well adjusted to the ecosystems
of the southern Sahel region (Breman and de Wit, 1983). Moreover, they have
demonstrated that undeveloped, animal-based communities such as the southern Sahelian
2

3. nomads are more energy efficient than modern, fuel-based societies. “Mobility is an
ecological necessity, and the mobile pastoralism is often the best way to manage dry
environments sustainably” (UNDP, 2003). On the contrary, concentration of humans and
livestock into small areas degrades the soil, decreases the productive capacity of the land,
and causes a decline in water resources and their quality. Sedentarization of nomad
pastoralists 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.
Political expediency lead the Government of Iran in the 1930s to decree that nomadism was
an anachronism in the 20th century; those who practiced it must settle down, cultivate crops
and raise domesticated animals. It was hard to rule the trekking people, scattered in far-
away mountains and plains. It is obvious that the ban on transhumance resulted in the
wastage of most forage on one million km2 of our rangelands along with livestock industry
that had utilized those resources from time immemorial. The transhumant population
decreased from 3.1 million in 1939 (20.5 %) to 2.5million (9.6%) in 1966, to1.152 million
(2.3%) in 1974, and to 1.304 million (2.1%) in 1998 (Iranian Center for Statistics, as
reported by Najafi, 2004). Although the national population has quadrupled during the
past 60 years, the number of transhumant pastoralists has declined by 57 %.
The bulk of our food grains and feed was produced on rain-fed farms and pastures before
the construction of large dams and advent of powerful pumps. Limited irrigation was
achieved by the flow of qanats, base flow of rivers, and the spring discharge. Spate
irrigation was practiced on some 600,000 ha of foothills and plains in many parts of the
Land of Iran. Those environmentally friendly technologies not only supported the 20
million populations of the late 1950s, but also maintained a healthy export industry.
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. This law that had been promulgated to stem the spread of Communism
did not achieve its objective as it was against the Islamic teachings, and the stakeholders
were not allowed to participate in decision making. Article 64, Section B, Item 4 of the
Compendium of the Land Reform Act (Anon., 2001) specifies that each of the 48,592
farming communities (McLachlan,1968)will be allocated twice the area of its farm fields,
orchards, gardens and nurseries for livestock grazing. This enticed the powerful land
owners aided by the conniving public servants to break the virgin land adjacent to their
fields, thus claiming much larger extent than they had been previously farming.
Unfortunately, in most instances those areas designed for grazing were ploughed with
heavy machinery and used for cultivating crops. Worst of all, as far as the water resources
were concerned, many landlords declined to maintaine the qanats to show their resentment
against the Government’s decision, or could not afford it due to the decrease in their land
holdings. Bonine (1996) righly believes that the uncertainty about the ownership of qanats
was a reason for the reduced community valuation of them. They resorted to wells with the
catastrophic desiccation of qanats. The Land Reform Act infringed the right of nomad
graziers not only due to the decrease in the free range they were using from time
immemorial, but also most of their migration routes were compulsorily changed causing
undesired outcomes. These two political expediencies laid the foundations of our water
mismanagement.
3

4. The national policies in the late 1970s starting to foster self-sufficiency in wheat and red
meat further encouraged illegal expripriators to continue to overexploit the remaining land
(Adeel et al., 2008); again, infringing on the right of nomad graziers. Thus, the coup de
grâce was dealt to our rangelands, the water towers of our country.
Dietary changes, which mostly took place after the land reform and importation of cheap
rice, have made a heavy burden on our water resources. Water requirement of rice at
Nowshahr on the Caspian Sea Coast is 297 mm, while it is 1362 mm in Susa (Bybordi,
2005); however, the grim actuality is the volume delivered to the rice paddies is a few fold
the requirement; it is about 25,000 m3ha-1 in the Province of Fars. Rice is grown on
615,000 ha in years when we receive the normal precipitation; only about 400,000 ha of it
on the ecologically suitable Caspian Sea Coast. Thus, assuming that only 200,000 ha of rice
is grown south of the Alborz Mountain Ranges, and further assuming that improved
delivery services and irrigation practices reduce this volume to 20,000 m3ha-1, 40 bm3 of
water is wasted for growing rice in unsuitable climates. By changing this commodity to
wheat, we would annually save some 20 bm3 of water. This has happened with beef, too.
Up to the 1950s, only a small minority preferred beef; the rest consumed other kinds,
particularly the mutton produced by the nomadic transhumants. Beef production has
necessitated growing corn, with the resultant drain on water. According to Postel (1992,
p.190) “A kilogram of hamburger or stake produced by a typical California cattle
operation, uses some 20,500 liters of water”. A change in the dietary preference is in order;
desert-dwellers cannot eat like the people living in humid climates and expect to have
adequate water too!
Hydropower generation has been another huge drain on our water resources. Arrival and
residence of cold fronts, and the lack or breakdown of the gas and diesel fuel systems, is
usually made up for by bringing more generator under operation! It is ironic that in an oil
and gas exporting country, the limited surface water resources should be wasted to
produce heat. As irrigation is rarely practiced in winter, most of the water used to generate
electricity drains into the Persian Gulf and inland playas. To save water and energy, Totten
et al. (2010) advocate implementing the integrated resource planning (IRP) approach,
which has been practiced in California since the 1980s, and also in the Pacific Northwest
and northeastern US states.
Coarse-grained, unconsolidated alluvial deposits: Worthier than oil!
The existence of some 410,000 km2 of deep alluvial strata south of the Alborz and east of
the Zagros Mountain Ranges on the Iranian Plateau, and in inter-mountain valleys, is a
great blessing for the inhabitants of this land. Upwards of 5,000 km3 of water (11 fold our
MAP) may be kept in these potential aquifers for a long time, evaporation from the
reserves is very low, and the stored water could be conveyed by gravity and for long
distances through the qanats. This immense underground space offers us a great advantage
to store water during times of abundance and recovery of that water in times of scarcity.
Extreme hydrologic events often provide opportunities for the ARG (NAC, 2008). A
complementary advantage of the ARG is flood mitigation and a substantial decrease in the
related damages. Assuming that we reach the zero population growth today, and our water
consumption remains at the present extravagant rate, we can depend on the stored water for
40 years if we fully recharge these potential aquifers with interruptive floods. It is a
variation of insurance against droughts for pastoralists (Mesbah and Kowsar, 2010). “In a
4

5. word, [underground] storage increasers the flexibility with which water can be managed”
(NAS, 2008). We have proven that ARG is technically practicable, environmentally
friendly, socially acceptable, economically justified, and financially feasible. In fact, the
benefit: cost ratio for some tangible benefits has been 20:1 (Bakhtiar et al., 1997), and for
ecosystem restoration, 70:1 (Karimzadegan et al., 2000).
Two main factors have decided the geological character of our intramontane basins. The
deposition of thick argillaceous lacustrine layers during the Miocene and Pliocene ages,
and the filling up of the basin by alluvial deposits during the Pleistocene age after the final
upheaval that took place at the beginning of the Pleistocene (Stöcklin, 1968). Issar (1969)
believed that the thickness of our alluvial beds may reach 400 m. Fookes and Knill (1969)
have reported that the maximum depth of alluvium in the Tehran area is 1,020 m. The
synclines in the Zagros Mountain Ranges are filled by Miocene gypsiferous clays and
marls overlain by alluvial deposits (Issar, 1969). The ancient Persians took advantage of
this geological setting and invented the qanat. Al-Karaji (c.a.1019), the great Iranian
geohydrologist and engineer, wrote his tome on groundwater and qanats a millennium ago.
Wulff (1968) claimed that there were 50,000 strings of qanats in Iran with a total length of
360,000 km and a combined discharge of 500 m3 per second, which was the mean
discharge of the Karun River at the time. The Ministry of Power, however, has reported
that there are 21,500 strings with a total yearly yield of 8.014 billion m3 (Ahmadi and
Zolanvar, 1984). Behnia (1988) has reported the total number and the yearly discharge of
the qanats at 18,400 and 7.5 billion m3, respectively.
An interesting characteristic of qanats in Iran is their position beneath the plains: the water
that drains below a field irrigated by an upstream qanat is intercepted by the downstream
qanat, ad infinitum. A case in point is the 3-leveled qanat system in Delijan, 250 km south
of Tehran. Only at the very lowest elevation on the playas’ margins, where soils are very
fine-textured, might some flow be wasted during the cold season. It is obvious that where
there is no qanat, or pumping of groundwater does not affect the yield of close by qanats,
wells may be drilled and operated.
Qanats performed the most vital role in the agrarian as well as the urban communities. As
the shallow watertable fluctuated with the annual precipitation, the farmers were not able to
over-exploit groundwater. The arrival of pumps drastically changed the picture. An
extremely advantages characteristic of qanat, as far as transforming our fuel-based
economy into a low-carbon, environmentally sustainable society, is that the water in this
system flows by gravity, and no other source of energy is used to deliver water to the points
of use, which had been originally selected to benefit from the qanat. This is in stark
contrast to the tremendous amount of hydro- and thermal power produced energy spent in
pumping water from ever increasing depth of the over-exploited groundwater resources.
Unfortunately, the loss of our most precious resource is accompanied by land subsidence in
many plains, a deleterious occurrence that has been reported from other lands including the
USA and Japan. Extraction of cooling water for one of our major thermal power plants has
resulted in formation of 18 gaping holes, one with a diameter of 22 m and depth of 14 m, in
the Kaboud Rahang Plain, western Iran. Apparently, land subsidence has been noticed in
the power plant area as well.
Warning. As most Iranians practically live on the potential aquifers, and as the
routine treatments cannot take all of the harmful substances out of wastewaters,
5

6. therefore, appropriating such waters for irrigating crops is not recommended.
However, if detailed geotechnical studies locate isolated potential aquifers, the treated
wastewaters may be used for irrigation of shade trees and industrial woods on the
land overlying those aquifers.
The establishment of 5+ and 6+tons ha-1 wheat clubs in the 1990s wrongly persuaded
farmers to over-fertilize and over-irrigate their fields in hope of receiving monetary
rewards from the Government. The criterion was more yield per ha, and not the higher
WUE. Wheat production at any cost, especially for export, which was a pet project of the
former Minister of Jihad-e-Agriculture, resulted in severe over-exploitation of groundwater
resources all over Iran, particularly in the Province of Fars, which is the breadbasket of this
country. Supplementary irrigation of up to 14,000 m3 ha-1of wheat was common place.
Thus, aquifer depletion is occurring despite the emphasis of Article33 of the Water
Nationalization Act of September 1968 that “… holders of groundwater use permits are
required to install measuring equipment on their wells and, upon request of the Ministry of
Water and Power, to submit reports on the amount of water used”. Implementing this
regulation would have prevented overdraft and salination of aquifers, and subsidence of
their overlying land, which are rampant all over the Land of Iran. In my countrywide
travels since 1968 I have never seen a single meter on a well. Now that we have reached
the bottom of many aquifers, this regulation might be enforced. Disregard for regulations is
outrageous; e.g., the aquifers in the City of Jahrom, which is famous for its citrus fruits and
dates, was decreed protected from new withdrawals in 1965. Ignorance of this decree since
1979, encouraged by the heavily subsidized diesel fuel and electricity, has lowered the
water table some 50 meters and desiccated many wells and qanats. 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!
Speculations in land under the disguise of environmental amelioration, which was followed
by illegal boring, has substantially decreased our karstic groundwater resources that had
been earmarked solely for drinking in 2001. Desiccation of numerous high yielding springs
is an indication of mismanagement of our karstic resources. As the Zagros Mountain
Ranges is highly faulted (Farhoudi, 1987; Sutcliffe and Carpenter, 1967), and most springs
issue through faults and fissures, it is logical to assume that freshwater springs and deep
wells bored through limestone are interconnected. Furthermore, as some of our alluvial
aquifers are also recharged by karstic water, over-pumping of deep wells bored in alluvium
may also be a contributing factor in spring desiccation. A case in point is the fault- induced,
Fire Temple Spring (Qomp-e-Ateshkadeh in Farsi), a spring with a recorded yield of 280
liters per second, which practically desiccated after 3 well were bored close to it in
limestone to supply water for the City of Fasa in southern Iran.
Paradigm shift: A water-based economy versus an oil-based economy
Iranians should be convinced that water-not petroleum-is the liquid that sustains life.
Furthermore, the rulers must shift their paradigm that dams do not generate water!
They should also realize that the ARG can supply water at least cost and risk, while
bringing many other benefits.
Large dam builders have been either ignorant of our geological, geomorphological and
climatic settings, or preferred to ignore them. The Salman-e-Farsi Dam (28˚.53′28″N;
53˚.12′03″E), with the annual regulated flow of 313 million m3, has been built on a major
6

7. fault. A cave with an estimated capacity of 150,000 m3 was discovered only after the
termination of construction. The dam site and its surroundings have experienced major
earthquakes in the living memory. The leakage from the Lar Dam, which supplies water to
Tehran, is sometimes more than the inflow of its reservoir. The late Professor Sahabi
(1984), a great Iranian geologist, had vehemently objected to its construction due to the
geothermal activities of the nearby Damavand volcano, the presence of abundant faults,
numerous karstic springs and subterranean conduits downstream of the dam, and the
gradual rising of the dam site.
As of 2008, the majority of the 575 functioning large dams in Iran (Anon., 2010) are
located on potentially active faults; this is also true for the 13 large dams under
construction and the proposed 345 other large dams, which are under the different stages of
study (Professor Farhoudi, personal communication). Thus, an untold number of Iranians
are in danger of drowning and also the loss of the precious water in case of dam breakage.
Tectonic movements resulting from the Red Sea opening not only induces earthquakes in
Iran, but also causes some 17 mm annual rise in the Iranian Plateau (Prof. Farhoudi,
personal communication) that causes instability at the dam sites and their surroundings.
Occurrence of huge landslides, and their accelerated plunge into reservoirs, causes a
sudden rise in water surface and the resultant overflow of the dams and their probable
collapse as it happened on 9 October 1963 to the Vaiont Dam in Italy. The deposition of 26
million m3 of earth and rock in the reservoir in less than 10 seconds produced a 25 m tall
wave that passed over the dam and ruined it (Kierch, 1964).
Evaporation from surface reservoirs is a necessary evil. Annual evaporation from the
surface water ranges 130 to 400 cm, with a mean of some 200 cm in Iran. This, for the
Dorudzan Reservoir close to Shiraz amounts to109 million m3 per year.
Sedimentation behind large dams is another humanly unsolvable problem. The extremely
large sediment deposition behind the existing dams, which is estimated at 200 million m3 a
year, the capacity of an average man-made reservoir in Iran, drastically decreases their
useful life. Outcropping of highly erodible formations in most of our watersheds makes
their runoff highly turbid. Sedimentation in man-made reservoirs substantially decreases
their useful capacity. A large government organization is fighting a losing battle for the
past 51 years. The height oh the Ekbatan Dam has been recently increased by 25 meters,
and that of the Dez Dam, the tallest dam in Iran, has been proposed due to sedimentation.
The Sefeed-Rude Dam is a case in point. Of the 56,000km2 Sefeed-Rude Basin, only 1,120-
km2 (2%) is covered with the Miocene and Plio-Pleistocene badlands. This small area,
however, supplies 98% of the sediment in the reservoir of the Sefeed- Rude Dam. About
40% of the useful capacity of the reservoir was used up within 18 years; therefore, the
useful life of the reservoir has been less than halved (Anon., 1984). Soil conservation
activities on badlands are an exercise in futility.
Unbelievable exorbitant funds have been spent for building large dams, water distribution
systems for their command areas and inter-basin transport. However, contrary to the initial
claim of the water authorities, the main purpose of damming a river in Iran is to provide
domestic water for the far away cities. Therefore, the riparian right holders have become
deprived of their water resources, both surface and groundwater, particularly during the
recurrent and prolonged droughts. This unscientific and immoral act is tantamount to
usurpation, which is considered a sin by Moslems. Moreover, as TI (2008, 2009) and
7

8. Totten et al. (2010) have righly claimed, the large funds appropriated for dam construction
create multiple opportunities for corruption and graft. Using the order of our previous
supreme leader to supply water for the City of Qom as an excuse, the 15th Khordad Dam
was built on an unsuitable foundation collecting brackish water that turns saline due to
evaporation! En masse city-ward migration and its undesirable aftermaths has been a result
of water mismanagement. A case in point is an over-exploitation of groundwater; this has
resulted in irreversible land settlement, salinization of groundwater, and inevitable soil
degradation in numerous plains throughout Iran.
What policies can the I.R. Iran adopt to cope with water scarcity?
Science-based policy-making. Water resources management is an exact science; therefore,
policy-making should be assigned to water scientists of the highest moral standards.
Carrying capacity. Water is the number one limiting factor in the well-being of dryland
inhabitants; therefore, its availability should be regarded as the topmost criterion for
planning any development project. Policy-makers should be either ecologists par
excellence, or heed their consultation.
Transparency. The true costs of dams and their water delivery systems, the funds
appropriated for soil conservation projects implemented to reduce reservoir silting, the
monetary losses accrued due to the harmful environmental impacts, and therefore, the real
value of the water the dams regulate should be given to provide a solid baseline against
which other available alternatives to supply and store water may be assessed. This directive
is also important in education and capacity building, as transparency is the prerequisite for
restoring public’s confidence in the system. To achieve the desired impact, the water sector
should first prove its integrity.
Education. Most of our younger generation, who has been raised on relatively abundant
water, is ignorant of the real value of this life-giving substance. Drastic measures have to
be taken to instill in them that water is a very limited resource; thus, it should not be
wasted. 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. Although this term might raise some eyebrows,
water scarcity has become so severe that our very survival depends on making water as
sacred as it was when we were Zoroastrian.
Respecting riparian and prior appropriation rights. Land ownership adjacent to the
body of water entitles the owner the fair use of water, particularly for irrigation purposes.
This is also true for those who have appropriated water for the lands, which are not on the
banks of the rivers. Therefore, the fields which had been irrigated before the flow of the
concerned river were dammed, or transported to another basin, have the priority of water
use. It should be understood that water belongs to the land and not to its present occupier.
Appropriating this water for other uses is tantamount to usurpation that is blasphemous in
the Islamic doctrine. This is also true for well and qanats; prior appropriation dictates the
natural recharge of their aquifers. 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.
8

9. Water valorization. Moslems believe that water is a gift from Allah; therefore, it is a free
good. Although the Government has set a price for the irrigation and domestic waters, the
real costs of water resources development and delivery is never extracted from the users.
This has to be changed. Incentives, such as “more crop per drop”, might encourage
irrigators to base their withdrawal on the enhanced WUE.
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. This saves on
the water used to produce feed for cattle. Other incentives, such as helping them build the
ARG system and giving them the title to the developed land seems logical.
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. As spring and
summer rainfall decrease the volume of supplementary irrigation for corn, it is better to
grow this crop on the foothills and highlands of the northern flank of the Alborz Mountain
Ranges south of the Caspian Sea and in northwestern Iran.
Improving water use efficiency. Achieving food security through selection and
development of high-yielding, stress-resistant varieties of small grains for food and feed,
and employing improved agronomic practices using the same volume of water is
tantamount to producing “more crops per drop”.
Floodwater harvesting for spate irrigation and artificial recharge of groundwater.
This is the most appropriate technology for water development where potential aquifers
and floodwater are available. Spate irrigation of low gradient farm fields saves a large
volume of groundwater presently used to raise agronomic crops. As most of our arable soils
are underlain with coarse alluvium of good quality, spate irrigation of such soils achieves
ARG simultaneously. It is estimated that water delivery and distribution systems take about
10% of the fields’ surface area out of production; however, the saving made in water and
the increased yield compensates the reduction in the planted area. Practicality, economical
soundness, financial feasibility, environmental friendliness, social acceptability, and
provision of employment opportunity are some other attributes of the ARG. Disregarding
the value added job creation the ARG on 14 mha provides 4 million extra occupations in
the I.R.Iran.
Withdrawal=ARG. Groundwater users’ obligation is to recharge their aquifers as much as
they withdraw from them. This, in a long term, stabilizes the watertable as the natural
recharge compensates for the over-exploitation in previous years.
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. Adhering to
this policy saves significant time and expenses in adjudication of water rights (NAS, 2008).
Capacity building. As I advocate 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.
9

10. Termination of subsidizing electricity for pumping water. Cheap electricity and ease of
operation as compared with using diesel fuel to energize pumps has been instrumental in
the accelerated lowering of watertables. Charging the real cost of production and delivery
would persuade irrigators to improve their WUE.
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. Camels browse thorny bushes avoided by
most ruminants. Furthermore, they do not require daily watering. As the camel pastures are
underlain with coarse alluvium, spate irrigation simultaneously recharges the underneath
aquifers. Although we have not executed a methodical research on camel farming,
anecdotal evidence may support this contention. A group of farmers in the Gareh Bygone
Plain put 14 weaned camels on the ARG systems planted with quail bush (Atriplex
lentiformis [Torr.] S. Wats.) and some fodder trees. The camels were sold at 100% profit
after 6 moths.
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 on every pump, and
also at the inlets of irrigated farms benefiting from surface waters, reduces over-irrigation.
Vigilant and honest water riders should oversee water diversion at inlets and check the
precision of meters installed on pumps.
Rejuvenation of the desiccated qanats, rehabilitation of the ruined ones, and
construction of new qanats. An unheard of wealth in the form of abandoned qanats
is buried under the Land of Iran. Bringing this life-giving system back to work is possible
by raising the watertable through the ARG and repairing the damaged ones. Tunnel boring
machines may be used to speed up construction activities.
Domestic water utilization. Per capita consumption of 20 liters per day provides a healthy
share for a clean living. It is 340 liters in Shiraz! Although leakage and theft have inflated
the real per capita consumption, the actual consumption is many fold the real need of a
person. This has to be changed! It is true that low spenders were rewarded by not paying
for water delivery services; however, monetary fines had not stopped the well-to-do from
using water profusely. Cutting the delivery might remind the extravagant consumers of the
vital importance of water. This policy substantially decreases wastewater, and the costs of
its treatment and transport.
Assessing environmental impacts. 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
ground waters. This necessitates employing independent ecologists to assess the present
situation and recommend measures to remedy the broken down systems.
Family planning. Encouraging high fertility during the 8-year war with Iraq (1980-1987)
caused a steep rise in our population. Although the rate has diminished in recent years, it is
becoming more than the carrying capacity of our water resources. Achieving zero
population growth may save us from certain demise.
10

11. Acknowledgments
Appreciation is extended to Mr. Abbas Abdollahipanah, Mr. Naser Abdollahipanah, and
Sayyed Hamid Mesbah for providing the transhumant census for the past 71 years, and to
Dr. Mehrdad Rahnamaee for providing the latest National Water Data.
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List of Acronyms
ARG Artificial recharge of groundwater
bm3 Billion cubic meters
ha Hectares
I.R. Iran Islamic Republic of Iran
IRP Integrated resource planning
km2 Square kilometer
km3 Cubic kilometer
MAP Mean annual precipitation
mha Million hectares
m3 ha-1 Cubic meters per hectare
WUE Water use efficiency
13