Depletion of Aquifers Posing Serious Threat

Poor rainfall and growing population in recent decades have led to the reduction of Iran's groundwater reserves, such that the level of groundwater in alluvial aquifers has decreased by an average of 4.7 billion cubic meters annually.
Firouz Qasemzadeh, director general of the National Water Data and Information Office at the Iran Water Resources Management Company, said the average annual depletion of water in the country's alluvial aquifers during the last water year (ended September 2021), which had very little precipitation, was more than 7.1 billion cubic meters, which is a huge figure, ILNA reported.
Alluvial aquifers are generally shallower than sedimentary and fractured rock aquifers and water levels often fluctuate due to varying recharge and pumping rates.