Iran and Turkmenistan have agreed on better management of water shared from Friendship Dam (also known as Doosti Dam), managing director of Mashhad Water and Wastewater Company said.
“As per the agreement, the dam water won’t be used in agriculture and will only be used for drinking purposes,” Hossein Esmaeilian was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
“At present, about 20% of Mashhad's drinking water resources are supplied from Doosti Dam that is located 170 km from the metropolis,” he added.
Esmaeilian noted that the dam has a storage capacity of over 1.2 billion cubic meters and the two neighboring countries have equal shares of the reservoir.
The Iran–Turkmenistan Friendship Dam is situated on Hariroud River, which forms part of the international boundary between Iran and Turkmenistan.
The dam was completed in 2004, and both countries agreed that each would have an equal right to the waters of the river. It was officially opened in 2005.
So far, the dam has supplied water for irrigation and drinking purposes to surrounding areas.
Hariroud River or Herat River flows across 1,100 kilometers from the mountains of central Afghanistan to Turkmenistan, where it forms the Tejend oasis and disappears in the Karakum Desert. Part of this river also flows into Iran.
Iran and Turkmenistan have built dams and canals on the river since 2004. The construction of Iran–Turkmenistan Friendship Dam provoked Kabul to build another dam, Afghan-India Friendship Dam, on the same river as it felt its water resources are being plundered. Consequently, the water behind Doosti Dam declined drastically.
Regarding water resources in Khorasan Razavi Province, Esmaeilian said, “In the last water year [ended September 2021], precipitation decreased by more than 40% in the province and more than 60% in the metropolis of Mashhad compared to the long-term [50-year] period.”
Since the beginning of the current water year (September 23, 2021), rainfall has declined by 21% compared with the long-term average. This has led to a reduction of more than 35% in the volume of water reserves in Mashhad compared to last year and created problems for supplying water to the metropolis.
