The current system of Iranian water resources management and exploitation was shaped with the events of the 1960s and produced conditions of increasing importance for national management of water in the macro planning of the country. This trend will undoubtedly continue in the future, with increased expansion, in three groups as follows:
• Group one includes those conditions and trends that in the past and present have determinant impacts on water resources management system and will continue in future, such as:
- population growth and rapid urbanization and increase of per capita consumption of urban water that cause the increment of water utilization in population centres - growth of industry and rapid industrialization of the country that will give rise to
increasing the contribution of industrial water consumption
- increased importance of planning and future forecasting especially in long-term planning that will cause promotion of the role of water resources management in development plans.
• Group two includes those recent trends that will be accelerated in future, such as:
- increase of the non-consumptive exploitation of water resources for energy generation, aqua-culture (cold water fishes) and recreational purposes
- more sensitivity and awareness on the pollution of water resources and its economic and environmental consequences
- more sensitivity and awareness on the environmentally adverse impacts of water resources development projects
- increase of the cost for securing additional water
- prevention of the irrational utilization of groundwater resources
- increase of the relative contribution of small-scale projects with increased participation of local exploiters
- increase of the contribution of substitute management and renewal of installations - reduction of urban and agricultural water loss especially in transmission and
distribution phases
- collection and sound disposal of urban sewage.
• Group three relates to trends that have not yet been obvious or did not exist at all, such as:
- increasing stress on the development of surface water resources compared with groundwater
- collection and sound disposal of industrial wastewater - treatment and reuse of urban and industrial wastewater
- participation of local residents and exploiters and stakeholders in financing large-scale water resources development projects
- reduction of water loss on farms
- increase in the importance of financial resources mobilization and costing for projects and implementation programmes
- more participation of the national and regional management of water in foreign policies, national spatial strategy plans, national physical plans and regional planning, in parallel to the incremental importance of shared water basins and water exportation, the role of water in national security and food security and the necessity of adopting basic solutions in critical water basins.
It is anticipated that these trends and related changes will evolve in such a way that the national management of water resources will enter a new stage with wide socio-economic and environmental dimensions. The start of this stage will create new responsibilities for water managers who will need training. In this respect, major actions include the removal or mitigation of inadequate infrastructures and water management systems, and capacity-building in water management especially from demand management points of view.
A more detailed view of the main changes in trends, duties and new abilities in the field of water resources management is shown in Table 1, which includes some selected indexes relating to the base year (2000) and target year (2021).
Exploited water and available water
The annual capacity of available water for consumptive exploitation will increase from 96 bcm to 130 bcm (according to the suggested scenario). In total, about 34 bcm of new capacities will increase, about 92 per cent of the total capacity of available water will be exploited, and the volume of exploited water will increase by138 per cent compared to the base year.
Extra exploited water relates in part to existing unused capacities and in part to the use of new capacities. Unused capacities pertain to large reservoir dams. For the time being, about 8.5 bcm out of total capacity of 25.4 bcm is not exploited.
Action plan and activities
An action plan has been formulated in order to fulfil fundamental principles and help determine the main course of action from present to future conditions. This plan includes five general principles and thirty-seven adjustable strategies. In other words, an independent execution programme can be prepared for each strategy and the relations of total strategies can be obtained through determination of general objectives.
The main objective is efficient and equitable development and use of Iranian water resources in accordance with socio-economic and environmental needs of present and coming generations.
Table 1: Water Resources Management Vision in terms of statistics
Indicator Unit 2000 2021 (selected
scenario) Ratio (%)
1. Volume of exploited water bcm 97 120 130
2. Share in water resources - Groundwater - Contribution of private sector
1012 Rls. 8. Importance in national
economy (NE):
- Contribution of water investment from GDP - Contribution of water value and related services in NE 9. Contribution of capital return
of expenses of governmental 10. Economic revenue of water in
different sectors (average) Rls./cm 1614 5018 311
11. Economic revenue of water in farming sub-sector
- Productivity of agriculture water
Kg/ m3 0.6 1.1 180
12. Water and food security - Role of water in the production of cereals
- Role of water in the production of other yields
The general principles (policies) taken into consideration in the preparation of this programme and approved by the Expediency Council, are:
• the establishment of a comprehensive system of management in total water cycle based on principles of sustainable development and the ‘national spatial strategy plan’ in water basins of the country
• the improvement of productivity with due attention to the economic, security and political values of water in exploitation, supply, protection and consumption
• the increase in the rate of water exploitation and minimizing losses of water through every possible means
• the compilation of a comprehensive plan for observing proportions in the implementation of projects on dams, watershed management, aquifer management, irrigation networks, water quality, combat against drought and famine, flood prevention, recycling and utilization of unusual water resources, promotion of knowledge, know-how, technologies, and encouraging public roles in water exploitation
• the control of outflow water bodies and prioritizing utilization of joint water resources.
The suggested strategies and policies of the action plan are laid out in Chart 1.