Water is closely linked with industrial development and economic growth.
The director of the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran (Abfa) added that water supply and related services are an indispensable part of development projects and investing in water management and services is necessary for sustained economic growth.
“As long as water supply and water resource management issues are not streamlined, economic growth cannot be promoted and production and productivity cannot increase in economic sectors,” Qasem Taqizadeh Khamesi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Neglecting water issues can have potentially catastrophic impacts on economies and people’s livelihoods, and could reverse hard-won gains in poverty reduction, job creation and development, he added.
According to the official, water governance policies should be rewritten.
Water governance is a set of rules, practices and processes through which decisions for the management of water resources and services are taken and implemented, and decision-makers are held accountable.
The Abfa chief said a large number of jobs are heavily water-dependent, including those in agriculture, mining and industries ranging from paper to pharmaceuticals.
“Although moderately water-dependent occupations do not use a large amount of water, construction, recreation and transportation sectors do need some,” he said.
“Dole queues, which have been a major concern of the government, will keep expanding unless limited water reserves are managed carefully.”
Global water crises indicate the widening importance of water management, as global warming reduces resources and populations grow. Sustainable Development Goal-6 calls for ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030.
Nevertheless, water’s significance goes further.
Demand Management
In other words, as long as water demand is not managed efficiently, other strategies on the supply side, namely dam building and inter-basin transfers from far-flung locations will never produce the desired result.
It turned out that the damming policy was not viable and the mega structures failed to serve their intended purpose. The more troubling aspect is that water officials continue to sell their dam theories for which there are few buyers, save for possibly vested interests.
A workable strategy demands the efficient use of available water that involves reduction, reuse and recycling.
Khamesi noted that in countries lacking water resources, using wastewater, promoting purification and reusing treated water are a source of economic development.
This calls for a paradigm shift from conventional supply management to demand management, which approach is conspicuous by its absence.
“Future economic and social development will be a function of our ability to understand and manage water demand to achieve consumption levels consistent with the sustainable use of this finite resource,” he added.
It does not matter how full the dams or underground reserves are or should be. The chronic water challenges are here to stay and worsen unless demand is readjusted and redefined with policies that help regulate, control and influence consumption patterns that so far have been prohibitive.
As freshwater supplies dwindle at alarming speed, their conservation and efficient use become imperative more than before, the official said.
World Water Council
As the world entered the 21st century, the World Water Council said in a report: “There is a water crisis today. But the crisis is not about having too little water to satisfy our needs. It is a crisis of managing water so badly that billions of people - and the environment - suffer badly."
Needless to say, there are other effective measures to alleviate the water crisis some of which are mass media campaigns, timely detection of seepage and repairs, establishing regional water markets, penalties for waste and excessive use and privatization.
A distinctive feature of water demand in the country of 83 million people is the inexorable rise in the past three decades with further growth forecast. In late 1970, the population was near 33 million.
Demand for water is expected to increase in future, as the population expands rapidly.
“Per capita water availability was 6,500 liters a year in 1966. Nonetheless, the figure has decreased to 1,500 liters, renewable water resources have dwindled by 30% and population has risen 2.5 times,” Khamesi added.
According to the late veteran eremologist, Parviz Kardavani, Iran’s central plateau, encompassing the provinces of Yazd, Isfahan, Kerman and Fars, is reaching a point where the quantity of freshwater renewable resources cannot meet demand and is impeding economic development.
Under the circumstances, the government said it was forced to divert water from the Persian Gulf in the south to the dry and drought-hit central regions – a highly controversial move that Kardavani censured as unwanted and unhelpful.
“Tampering with ecosystems in and of itself is harmful. Eventually, it results in the death of that system,” he declared.
Other regions in Iran too are rapidly approaching critical situations and face huge water problems that get worse as time passes.
The bottom line is that water demand management is a new frontier on the way to achieving a long-term balance between available supply and its use for human development.
