Although water transfer from the Persian Gulf to Sirjan in Kerman Province eased the water crisis in industries like Golgohar Mining and Industrial Complex, other parts of the region are still suffering from chronic shortage, the chairman of Majlis Economic Commission said.
“The formation of water markets to alleviate the paucity could be a new approach whereby buyers and sellers trade water through short- and long-term leases and permanent sale of water rights that can be within catchments,” Mohammad Reza Pour-Ebrahimi also told Mehr News Agency.
Several development projects in the province are on hold, as water tension in the dry area has aggravated over the last decade and many households have started to evacuate villages, he added.
He noted that temporary measures like water diversion schemes cannot be useful unless the whole province can be supplied with water, which is highly improbable.
A 300-km pipeline with seven pumping stations annually transfers 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water from the Bandar Abbas desalination plant in southern Hormozgan Province to Sirjan.
Pour-Ebrahimi noted that as long as the pipeline is not extended to other counties, industrialists and farmers cannot be hopeful of developing their businesses and migration from rural areas to large cities will accelerate.
On the other hand, a water market will allow farmers to buy and sell water depending on their needs. Water trading has become a vital business tool for farmers in many countries such as Spain, Australia and the US, to name a few, he said.
Efficient Use
Water markets encourage a more efficient water use, he said, adding that well-structured markets will augment water conservation efforts that so far have made little progress.
The new approach can help make possible the allocation of more water to economic sectors that are highly productive.
Pour-Ebrahimi said the first water market was piloted in Khorasan Razavi Province in 2020 and since it has produced the desired results, the system can be expanded across the country.
Water is a means of livelihood for a relatively large number of people and implementing a stringent monitoring regime with the help of law enforcement will not help.
Water markets constitute a regional-friendly measure that can help address scarcity and for the same reason, the academia and policymakers are more inclined toward such instruments.
“Such systems will likely draw greater attention, as water deficits become more frequent and intense,” he said.
Regions where consumers and those in charge are open-minded and admit that water is and will be a precious economic good can make better use of market instruments to flexibly reduce overexploitation of existing resources, modify consumption patterns and increase water use efficiency.
An added advantage of the mechanism, he added, is that when jurisdictions move from a centralized allocation of limited surface and underground water resources toward market instruments, power is transferred from regulators and bureaucrats to users.
But this does not mean that governments have no role when water markets are in place. Public authorities have to ensure that water rights are well defined, secure and reflect actual uses that buyers and sellers comply with.
Drought-Hit Aquifers
Each year, a massive 6 billion cubic meters of water are withdrawn from the drought-hit province’s aquifers, of which 95%, 2% and 3% are respectively used by agro, industrial and household sectors.
The plains around Kerman no longer have the capacity for deeper wells to reach groundwater and water transfer is apparently the only viable option.
Water demand in Kerman is 3,000 liters per second while maximum production capacity is 1,850 liters/second. The province’s drinking water is supplied by 365 wells, three springs, eight aqueducts and two dams.
The desert province, as is the case in most other regions in Iran, has been grappling with drought for years and piling pressure on urban authorities.
Officials have warned that the region’s groundwater balance is negative, which means that the rate of water withdrawal exceeds the recharge rate.
Prolonged drought and rising temperatures in Iran, in line with global warming, have led to a rapid decline in the recharge of groundwater resources.
Although experts consider water transfer schemes to be environmentally hazardous and destructive, using water from Persian Gulf is the last resort. Many Arab littoral states have long been drawing water from the waterway at very high costs.
Located in an arid and semi-arid area, Iran is facing huge water deficits as declining rainfall has become a norm (with few exceptions) while climate change, waste and mismanagement continue to take a high toll.
Overconsumption and depletion of underground resources for farming have made a bad situation worse.
