Since the beginning of the current water year (last September) Iran unlike previous years has been receiving its fair share of water from Hirmand (Helmand) River as per an agreement signed with Afghanistan in 1972, the energy minister said.
“As per the treaty, Iran is getting its share that will reach 800 million cubic meters by next September,” Reza Ardakanian was quoted as saying by ILNA on Saturday.
Following regular meetings in Tehran and Kabul since 2005 regarding Iran's water rights from the border river, the Afghan side accepted to pursue its water development projects on the shared basin in a way that will not harm Iran’s water share.
“Construction plans on the river should not restrict Iran's share of the joint basin under any circumstances,” the minister said.
Iran is saddled with severe water shortages in its southeastern regions bordering Afghanistan. A big part of the problem is linked directly Kabul respecting the 1972 agreement in the breach.
“The result has been that in the past two decades the part of Hirmand River inside Iran is dry for almost 10 months a year.”
However, conditions have improved since last September and Iran has no problem getting its annual share (800 mcm), the minister noted.
Referring to the 21st meeting of Joint Committee of the Hirmand Water Commissioners in Tehran last November, Ardakanian said the two sides agreed that advanced measuring instruments would be installed on Hirmand River for regular and efficient implementation of the 1972 treaty. He did not provide details.
A major issue today in the Helmand Basin is Afghanistan’s pursuit of water development projects. For instance, it is renovating the Kajaki Dam and constructing Kamal Khan on the Lower Helmand River. It is also planning to build Bakshabad Dam on Farah River, another joint basin.
Prior to the construction of dams on Helmand River, nine billion cubic meters of water flowed annually into the Hamoun Wetlands in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan Province. That has now declined to 800 mcm.
Over 70% of the southeastern Hamoun Wetlands in Sistan-Baluchestan is drying up, largely because of Afghanistan's controversial dam construction on its tributaries.
Simple Warning
The wetlands are a vital resource for the local population including residents in the provincial capital Zahedan.
By depriving Iran of its water rights from Hirmand, Kabul’s procrastination can make things worse for the already water-stressed regions, turning the wetlands into barren desert, experts have warned. Informed sources have also warned that it is not in Kabul’s interest to let this crucial issue drag on for years.
Hirmand River — the longest watercourse in Afghanistan — rises in the Hindu Kush mountains west of Kabul and empties into the Hamoun wetlands that straddle the border between the two countries, seeping into the Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchestan and Afghanistan's Nimruz and Farah provinces.
Earlier this year, Afghan deputy minister of water, Khan Mohammad Takal, said his government is committed to fulfilling its obligations over sharing the water from the Hirmand River and its tributary with Iran.
Effective Measures
Ardakanian noted that Iran’s annual water deficit is about 5.7 billion cubic meters, 1.5 bcm of which has been compensated in the last two years.
In addition to good rains in the last two years, rainwater harvesting, judicious water use (especially in the agro sector that guzzles more than 90% of the scarce water resources), use of modern irrigation techniques, recycling wastewater and implementation of watershed projects are among measures adopted to help conserve water, he said.
Environmentalists, social scientists and the cross-section of academia and media have for years appealed to the masses to cut water consumption and called on officials to undertake meaningful reforms.
There is a strong consensus that if water consumption patterns do not change in the near future, many parts of the country will turn into barren desert while entire towns and villages will become uninhabitable.
