Water Sector Suffers From Improper Execution of Spatial Planning

Failure to fully enforce spatial planning in Iran has not only brought the country to the verge of water bankruptcy but also had an array of catastrophic results, including the depletion of groundwater resources, soil degradation and drying up of rivers, lakes and wetlands, the chairman of the Technical Committee for Flood Evaluation and Dam Safety at the Iranian National Committee on Large Dams said.
“Findings of the first and second development stages of spatial planning in 1966 and 1977 showed that Iran is located in an arid region and unsustainable farming practices must be stopped, while industries like tourism, oil and mining should be developed. It is regrettable that these facts have totally been overlooked over the last four decades,” ILNA also quoted Mostafa Fadaeifard as saying.
In Iran, the importance of spatial planning was first realized around five decades ago and the first stage of spatial planning was implemented by the government in 1966.