WATER CRISIS IN IRAN: CODIFICATION AND STRATEGIES IN URBAN WATER
Dr H.Motiee*, GH. Manouchehri**, Dr M.R.M. Tabatabai***
* Assistant Professor, Water and Wastewater Eng. Dept., PWIT, P.O.Box 16765-1719,
Tehran, Iran.E- mail: motiee_h@yahoo.com
** Director of Water and Wastewater Company, Tehran, Iran
*** Assistant Professor, Water Eng. Dept., PWIT, P.O.Box 16765-1719, Tehran, Iran
ABSTRACT
Human civilization has always been in evolution by having direct access to water resources
throughout history. Water, with its qualitative and quantitative effects, plays an important role
in economic and social develoments. Contrary to other sources, water is not replaceable. By
increasing world population and also growth of communities, water and its consumption has
become important. This may even become more significant in those countries where the
volume of rainfall is limited. Water consumption per capita depends on the culture, kind of
activities and climate conditions, which varies in different areas. These differences are such
that the variation in water consumption per capita may range between 3.0 to 700 liters per
day. Iran is located in southwest Asia with an average annual rainfall of 250 millimeters. It
has an arid and semi-arid climate. Water crisis has appeared in Iran as a serious problem.
There are mainly two reasons for that: (1) Lack of proper water management and (2)
Occurrence of drought. In fact, water crisis can be defined as an unadjustment between water
resources and rate of consumption. In this paper attempts have been made to identify factors
influencing water crisis in Iran. Solutions are also put forward to control and reduce this for
the future.
KEYWORDS: Iran, Urban water, Water crisis, Drought, Water management, Water resources
1. INTRODUCTION
Iran with an arid and semi-arid geographic specification is located in Southwest Asia. The
normal annual average of precipitation is 250 mm. The geographic and climatic variation of
the country is very extensive. For instance, annual average rainfall in the north is more than
1000 mm, while this figure is less than 100 mm for central and southeast of the country.
Existing of mountainous areas in the north and west have caused the flows of several main
rivers. At the same time vast desert spread in the Central and Southeast. For this reason water
resources diversity is quite visible. These conditions lead to uneven distribution of population.
More than 50% of population lives in the west and north, while about 70% of water resources
is located in these areas (Bitaraf, 2000). The sum of annual water resources is estimated
135x109m3, the consumption rate in the three main sectors are as follows:
1- Domestic urban consume sector : five percent (5%)
2- Industrial sector : twenty percent (20%)
3- Agricultural sector : ninety three percent (93%)
Construction and performance of hydraulic structures such as dams, kanats, and conveyance
channels for reservoirs, transmission and distribution systems have been experience by
Iranian people since 3000 years ago. Three decades ago, before 1970, because of low
population, agricultural nature and low rate of urban population, water supply was not
considered as a critical problem of the country. During the last three decades, large dams have
been built around the big cities such as Tehran, Isfahan, Ahvaz, etc, in order to supply water
for urban, industrial and agricultural consumption. Where surface water has not been
available, ground water has also been used as water resources for supply. Since 1980, a rapid
population growth as well as rapid economic change has lead to significant agricultural and
industrial development and consequently increasing urban population (Manouchehri 2000).
Consequently, dramatic changes have been encountered in water demand. Until 1990, water
supply was not a critical problem and there was a reasonable ratio between available demand
and supply. In recent decade, water supply has appeared as a critical national problem, which
is explained in the followings:
2. CAUSES OF WATER CRISIS OCCURRENCE
There are mainly four reasons for which water crisis occurs (Manouchhri, 2000):
1- Rapid population growth which is improprotional to the environmental capacity,
2- Development of different parts of agriculture, industry and urbanization,
3- A decrease in the number of appropriate structures to store, distribute and convey water.
This is due to the lack of financial sources, which has led to the less investments,
4- Worldwide occurrence of drought (i.e. Iran) since 1995.
2.1. A Progressional Increase in Population
Since 1979, due to the cultural, social and economic change in Iran, there has been a
progressional increase in population in such a way that during the last 20 years the population
has increased from 30 to 60 million people. This has caused an increase in urban population
by 3.5 percent. Migration of people from rural areas to big cities and the suburbs has also
caused an increase in urbanization from one year to the next. This has culminated on a water
demands increase. The urban population of Iran was estimated 17 million in 1980, and the
number of people who used urban water services were estimated 13 million. This statistics has
now risen to 40 million urban population of which 38 million people take benefit of water
services.
On the basis of available reports, city migrants have been divided into two classes: economic
and environmental migrants. Environmental migrants are those who had to leave their lands
due to the droughts (i.e. central and southwest of Iran) while economic migrants are those
who have moved to big cities (i.e.Tehran) for better conditions and facilities of life.
Recently, regional water management of Tehran have announced that they might not be able
to provide water for Tehran in the near future. In this context, there are migrants who used to
consume water 10 Liters/day, but now, they tend to consume more of that in big cities rather
than using other urban services. Most of these migrants reside in suburbs where urban
services are much cheaper than central and inner zones. In order to reduce population growth
rate and migrations, the followings have been designed and applied:

Cutting down the rate of birth from 3% to 1% by applying the adequate population control
policy,
 Controling migration from rural areas to big cities by constructing urban infrastructural
and facilities. For instance, lots of attempts have been made, in addition to other services,
in order to convey water to the rural areas by canals and pipelines through dam
construction.
In big cities of Iran, the rate of capacity of population is challenging which is neither
compatible to environmental potentials nor to the rate of economic growth.
It is anticipated that the Iranian population will reach about 100 million by year 2020 and the
number of urban areas vary from 600 to 1000.
2.2. Development of Different Sectors: Agriculture, Industry and Urbanization
In present decade (1990-2000) water demand has been increased very rapidly in different
sectors in agriculture, industry and urban services. This demand is not only due to the
population increase but also due to an increase in the three so-called sectors. In the
agriculture, with the most water consumption, there is the highest loss, which has been
noticed by the people in charge in irrigation and drainage Department. Though urban water
demand consumes only 5% to 6% percent of the country water resources, however, due to the
high rate of consumption in those catchments, water supply has become serious problems.
Industrial growth can be a serious threat to Iranian water resources for two reasons: On one
hand, as the industrial rate of growth increases, the demand for water is also growing in
parallel. On the other hand the wastewater resulted from industrial activities may cause
surface and groundwater pollution, which makes Iranian water resources problems two folds.
Finding rational solutions for industrial effluent treatment is another environmental issues,
which have been on the Water and Wastewater Department Agenda.
2.3. Lack of Financial Sources for New Investments
Iran is classified as those countries which have been dependent on the financial sources
resulted from sales of oil. The revenue from the sales of oil on the National economy has
appeared by an increase in oil prices in international markets, which has caused government
to run a lot of projects in reservoir dams as well as water distribution and conveyance
systems.
On the contrary, as a reduction in oil prices comes to effect in the international markets, a lot
of projects are implemented slowly or even stopped.
Presently, Reservoir Dam Karkheh with a storage capacity of 7×10 9 cubic meters and Karoun
2 with a storage capacity of 3×10 9 cubic meters are the biggest reservoir dam construction
projects. The vitality of water and its storage for Iran, with an estimation of population to be
100 million people by 2020, is so important that several dam construction projects are in
progress in most of the rivers. Currently there are 84 dams in operation, 68 dam projects are in
progress and 120 are being studied in their early phases.
However, the lack of financial sources may cause a long delay in the operation of these
projects. This is clearly noticed in Karkheh Dam construction project whish is supposed to be
ready for operation in two to three years time but may take a long time for that.
This can partly be overcome by selling the shares of these projects in stock market. Therefore,
people are encouraged to investe in these kinds of projects to company the government in
such national projects. Bearing in mind, that foreign funds have also played very important
roles in some projects like the World Bank credit for 145 million Dollars for Tehran sewage
Network.
2.4. Appearance of Droughts in the World and Iran Since 1995:
Currently, debates on water crisis currently fall into two categories:
 Water scarcity, in general
 Drought in particular.
These categories are completely different, however what is so positive in that respect is that,
Iran is exposed to the continuous drought which with authorities have been fighting for a long
time. Thus, the plans and programs have to be made to reduce the damages resulted from
drought to a minimum.
As water consumption increases during wet years consumption exceeds the natural resources,
the vulnerability to drought therefore, tend to appear more intensive (i.e. Tehran). This has
also appeared in some other areas where reservoir dams have completely been emptied and
dried out. In year 98-99 government has devoted 300×10 9 Rials (about 10 million dollars)
credit for droughts compensation. These recent droughts have been nightmares throughout
Iranian water history, particularly, in 2000.
In this year, many rivers such as Zayandeh Rud and Hirmand dried out as well as some
swamps and marshlands. A large river like Karoun with an average daily discharge of 500
m3/s during last summer (2000) had an average discharge of 100 m3/s during summer 2000.
This, in turn, caused an increase in water concentration of the river and degradation of its
quality, which converted the river into a saline one. This still had further undesirable
consequences which ended up with the ban of supplying water to adjacent cities, such as
Ahwaz, Abadan and Khorramshahr, in the south of Iran.
Under these circumstances, government had to supply drinking water for these towns from
other other parts of the country with tankers and cargo trains. Serious objections were raised
by local people, bring about political problem for the government. So if the drought
occurrence continues in the future, it may raise social crisis as well as political issues in some
areas.
3. CRISIS MANAGEMENT AND SOLUTIONS
In the view of the problems cropped up from water crisis, the followings have been
recommended as solution to water crisis.
3.1. Establishment of Independent Water and Wastewater Companies under a
Centralized Unit
Before 1990 urban water and sewage used to be administrated by municipality in large areas
while small independent units in small areas could manage that by themselves.
Since then independent Water and Wastewater Companies under a centralized unit supervised
by Ministry of Energy have been organized so that the urban water and sewage authorities
could organize urban water supply under a united management.
3.2. Construction of New Projects
There are several large dams built in Iran before 1980 (Table1), however, in recent decade
some new dam construction projects have started (Table 2, Motiee et. al. 2000).
Table 1. Dams constructed before 1978
Order
Name
River
Locatin
Dam
Type
Reservoir
Volume
(MCM)
3340
Crest
Length
(m)
212
Height
(m)
Construction
Start
Period
End
1
Dez
Dez
North of Dezful
2
Karoun I
Karoun
3
Kor
4
Doroud
Zan
Sefid Rud
NE
Masjed
Soleyman
Doroud Zan
Concrete
Arch
Concrete
Arch
Rockfill
203
1960
1963
2900
380
200
1970
1976
993
700
60
1966
1972
Sefid Rud
Manjeel
Concrete
1800
425
106
1958
1962
5
Aras
Aras
Qeshlagh
Earthfill
1350
945
42
1967
1970
6
9
Zayandeh
-Rud
Amir
Kabir
Zarineh
Rud
Mahabad
Zay.Rud
Issi Sou
1450
450
100
1965
1970
Karaj
23 km to Karaj
205
390
180
1959
1963
Zari. Rud
Yamin Abad
Concrete
Arch
Concrete
Arch
Earthfill
650
720
50
1967
1971
Mahabad
Mahabad
Rockfill
230
700
46.5
1967
1970
10
Latian
Jajrud
Latian
Concrete
95
450
107
1963
1968
11
Golpayga
n
Abshineh
Akhte Khan
Earthfill
56.6
360
56
1947
1950
12
Golpayga
n
Ekbatan
Yalfan
Concrete
8
286
53
1959
1963
13
Voshmgir
Sangar Savar
Earthfill
79
430
19
1964
1970
14
Chah
Nimeh
Gorgan
Rud
Sisstan
Sisstan
Earthfill
45
128.5
17
1972
1978
7
8
Table 2. Dams under construction and/or study during last two decades
Order
Name
River
Location
Dam
Type
1
Jiroft
Halil Rud
2
Saveh
3
4
5
6
Lar
Esteghlal
Pishin
Torogh
Ghareh
Chay
Lar
Minab
Sarbaz
Torogh
Tange
Narab
SW Saveh
7
Kardeh
Kardeh
Kardeh
8
Vahdat
Sanandaj
9
Kohrang II
Gheshlag
h
Kohrang
Concrete
Arch
Concrete
Arch
Earthfill
Concrete
Roskfill
Concrete
Arch
Concrete
Arch
Earthfill
10
Chaqakhor
Gandoma
n
Boroujen
Polour
Minab
Chah Bahar
Torogh
Kohrang
Concrete
Gravity
Earthfill
Reservoir
Volume
(MCM)
430
Crest
Length
(m)
250
Height
(m)
Construction
Start
Period
End
134
1976
1983
290
265
128
1983
1993
960
344
250
40
1170
450
400
322
105
604
63
75
1975
1975
1978
1982
1981
1983
1992
1988
282
144
67
1982
1987
224
300
80
1973
1983
---
73
22
1972
1985
45
200
10
1988
1993
There are also a number of water conveyance projects to supply water to large cities.
These projects were done for the cities, where they are the centres of their provinces, without
which they could have encountered serious water supply. On the basis of available data during
decade 1990 to 2000, the condition of water conveyance in Iran is in the following diagram
(Elahipanah- 2000).
Q=403
MCM/Y
Q=366.2
MCM/Y
Q=219.1
MCM/Y
First Programm (1987-1992)
H=208m
H=413.3m
L=644.2 km
H=452m
Second Programm
(1992-1997)
L=1135 km
Third Programm (1997-2001)
L=1905km
km
Figure 1 - Variation of Water Transmission with Distnace
3.3. Unaccounted Flow of Water
Since 1990 a series of serious attempts have been made to identify existing urban water
networks. This has been accompanied by the investigation of unaccounted water quantity to
be estimated about 30%. Lots of attempts are now being made to reduce this to something less
than 10%. This can be achieved by reconstruction of water networks as well as installation of
modern necessary equipment.
3.4. Separation of Urban Water Network
One of the projects currently being researched on is the separation of drinkable water from
undrinkable one in urban areas (Mahvi et. al.- 1998). This was done in some southern parts of
the country in the last decades, however, it has not been proceeded beyond the research due to
its high cost.
3.5. Training and Modification of the Water Consumption Culture
Urbanized people have come to realize life with less water consumption, and get to know the
approach by which it can be achieved. This is required an intensive training. Currently,
without realizing the concept of water crisis and also having 24 hours access to it, water
consumption in some urban areas may be in the range of 300-400 litres per second.
The strategy of the water and wastewater industry for the settlement of appropriate patterns is
planned as follows:
1. In the new water consumption pattern, families classified according to the number of
members. An average annual consumption is defined for each family class, hence those
families that consume more than what is determined by authorities are counted as
overconsumers and have a lot more for their extra-water consumption. In this context,
research has shown that if the overconsumer family class reduce their consumption to that
of normal consumes class, one and a half times of the present population may be easily
supplied with current water resources. Bearing in mind that the urban population of Iran
is now approximately 40 million people.
2. Determination of an appropriate consumption pattern for arid and semi-arid environments,
as Iran is one of those countries with various climates.
3. Determination of an appropriate consumption pattern for drought years, which requires
promotion of public education in water consumption:
 Applying new technology for water consumption (i.e. water taps in houses),
 Visiting and monitoring household water networks,
 Changing water metres in tower block into individual household ones,
 Enlightening people by the press regarding less water consumption and its benefits
3.6. Bottled Water Production
Production of bottled water in internal markets may save water consumption, besides it can
turn into an export product and become a source of income. Undoubtedly, bottled water
becomes increasingly important and extensively significant due to the lack of water resources
as well as their pollution. This has led to the mass production of bottled water, which is done
by various manufacturers in Iran now.
4. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE STRATEGIES
The challenge in urban water and wastewater section in Iran may be summarised as follows:
1) People’s demands and their expectation of authorities to supply drinking water from new
resources, which have already been identified. This may be achieved by transmitting
water from upland rivers to central cities of Iran as well as desert areas (i.e. water
transmission from upstream of Karoun River),
2) 2-The danger of an extensive water resources pollution, particulrly in the watersheds
where urban water is supplied by,
3) 3-Restriction of high quality drinking water resources in many areas and also reduction of
water consumption per capita by increasing population, i.e. this has already occurred in
some areas where consumption per capita reduced to one –sixth,
4) Conflicts due to the competition for demand between differnet sectors,
5) The lack of knowledge and adavanced technology requirement,
6) Problems resulted from modification and movement of urban water treatment plants due
to qualitative and quantitative loss in local resources,
7) Improportional rate of growth of population in the country; urbanisation has added to this
problem,
8) Lack of single rigid policy with appropriate direction for self-administration of Water and
Wastewater Companies and also limitation in fixing water rate,
9) Increasing the cost of water transmission for long distances,
10) Breaking down of water networks and equipments.
The following three principles are considered for encountering the supply, distribution and
consumption of drinking water challenges,
a) An effective water resources management to take advantage of the available potential
resources and protection of them,
b) Proper management of transmission and distribution of water to avoid losses in the pipes
and promote distributions,
c) Proper consumption management to optimise water consumption and popularise the right
consumption.
On the basis of worldwide definition, it is admitted that Iran is on the borderline of water
crisis and the country is vulnerable to water supply. Various research and analysis have shown
that latest water supply projects comparing to those of the last decade are more expensive,
they require higher technology and skills in designing, construction and operation.
REFERENCES
Bitaraf, H. (Minister of Energy) (2000) Protecting Water Resources in Iran. Iranian Water
and Wastewater Journal (Shahrab) No. 223.
Elahipanah, N. (2000) Progressive Changes in Urban Water, Iranian Water and Wastewater
Journal (Shahrab) No. 227.
Karamooz, M. (1998) Water Resources Management in Iran, Asian Conference on Water
and Wastewater Management, Tehran, Iran.
Manouchehri, G. H. (2000) Water Crisis in Iran, Iranian Water and Environmental Journal,
No. 39.
Ministry of Energy (1997) Iranian Water and Wastewater Manual, Tehran, Iran.
Mahvi, A. Neirizi, S. (1998) Importance and Necessity of Separation of Urban Water
Network, Asian Conference on Water and Wastewater Management, Tehran, Iran.
Motiee, H. and Darakhani, J. (2000) Dam Construction Development in Iran During the
90’s. Third Canadian Dam Assocaiation, Regina, Canada.