The pace at which groundwater resources are depleting has become a serious source of concern and a preventive measure crucial in this regard should be battling illegal water wells.
Head of water resources’ affairs in Khorasan Razavi Water Company, Mohammad Borzouee, says of the 4,000 illegal wells in the province 2,000 were sealed in the last calendar year that ended in March, the Energy Ministry’s news portal reported.
“Sealing the wells helped save 62 million cubic meters of water.”
With 7 million people, the province is a big and populous region. More than 30 million pilgrims from in and outside Iran visit Mashhad every year, the provincial capital and Iran’s most important shrine city.
Close to 97% of the province’s water supply comes from underground resources that explains why extraction from renewable resources has reached terrible levels and at least 25% of what is being consumed now belongs to future generations, he added.
The water official rued that in most important religious center of the country people have not yet recognized the scale and scope of the water crisis. “It is the water company's responsibility to spread awareness. If not, the bad situation will become worse.”
The move (sealing unauthorized wells) has helped maintain to some degree stability in groundwater levels in the region that was falling sharply.
Moreover, the process of installing smart meters on authorized water wells has been expedited so that water extraction can be monitored accurately round the clock.
While the world's population tripled in the 20th century, the use of renewable water resources has grown six-fold. Within the next half century the world population will increase by another 40 to 50 %.
This population growth -- coupled with industrialization and expanding urbanization - has resulted in an increasing demand for water and will have serious consequences on the environment.
Global water management debates have come under strong scrutiny for long years as economic experts, climatologists, conservationists and environmentalists pool minds to find workable solutions to the deteriorating water problems that in most countries have become a major crisis.
One issue that always comes up for hot discussions is the price of water. It is the conviction of prominent experts that until people do not pay the real price of this precious resource they will fail to realize the fundamental need and importance of water for their children and grandchildren.
