Although water and wastewater development projects help boost major industries, a large number of initiatives in the key sector have been delayed.
Reza Hajkarim, a member of Iran Water Industry Federation, a privately-owned organization, made the statement while addressing a panel on "Water scarcity and related challenges" in Tehran on Tuesday, ILNA reported.
“There are 27,000 national and provincial plans that are being implemented at present, half of which started 30 years ago and it is still not clear when they will become operational,” he added.
Referring to South Tehran Wastewater Treatment Facility as an example, he noted that the groundbreaking ceremony of the facility was held three decades ago and all those officials who attended the ceremony have either passed away or retired, but the plant remains incomplete.
“Among all the factors contributing to such a fiasco, the one that sticks out is that most parliament members and ministers just want to participate in groundbreaking ceremonies and pose for photos without caring about the budget that should be allocated to the project,” he added.
Hajkarim noted that the private sector's reluctance to invest in the loss-making water sector has also added insult to injury, adding that the bloated bureaucracy, high risk of investment, volatility in forex market, sanctions and very low return on investment compared to other businesses have discouraged private investments in water ventures.
“We are able to export our technical and engineering services to other nations. Nonetheless, when it comes to carrying out projects in Iran, they are supported neither technically nor financially. Due to the current water condition in the Middle East and the fact that by 2050, the region should need 60% more water than now, what is important is to have a national discussion about water,” he said.
Over the past 50 years, decisions were made about water without the participation of all beneficiaries, namely farmers, environmental watchdogs and chains of water industry. Consequently, these groups are now engaging in the blame game over dam construction and other issues.
“In view of the current state of the country’s strategic water reserves, we cannot afford to make another mistake,” Hajkarim said.
Multidimensional Issue
According to the official, water sector is a multidimensional issue and investors in the industry have to handle not only political interference but also social meddling.
It is regrettable that there is no independent regulatory body to solve conflicts between the private sector and other beneficiaries, including the agriculture and energy ministries.
“In international markets, water is sold like gold and other precious metals like silver, platinum and ruthenium, but we still have a long way to go to reach that point as waste is not a valuable commodity in Iran,” he said.
Using water more efficiently demands a paradigm shift and an ethical revolution, in addition to technical solutions.
Truth be told “water has been viewed by commercial operators and industries as an abundant resource and a low-cost commodity”. Now that this finite resource is depleting rapidly and water shortages are felt in most parts of the country, this view must change.
According to Mahmood Ziaei, a faculty member of Tehran’s Allameh Tabataba'i University, population explosion, massive urban expansion, agriculture issues, rising consumption and waste and climate change have pushed rivalry for sustainable water resources to alarming levels.
Novel ecological, technological, managerial and cultural solutions are of paramount importance but nowhere near the priority list of successive governments in Tehran.
“As long as old paradigms, including dam building and inter-basin transfers to far-flung regions, are not replaced with new and workable methods like integrated water resources management [IWRM], shortages of this vital resource will get worse before getting better,” he warned.
Spatial Planning
Ziaei said the country is long suffering from water management illiteracy because fundamental concepts like spatial planning and IWRM – critical for sustainable development – are absent in long-term planning.
According to Majid Labbaf Khaniki, an expert at the International Center on Qanats and Historical Hydraulic Structures, Iranians, especially urban residents in the arid Yazd and Kerman provinces, were pioneers in adapting their lifestyles to water paucity for as long as history can recall.
Nonetheless, deficient plans like building water-intensive industries, such as steel mills in the heart of the desert, and insisting on agro self-sufficiency have been a recipe for disaster, as demand outweighed supply and over-extraction from groundwater resources ruined the qanat systems in the central regions, leading to the gradual disappearance of farmlands and disturbing migration patterns.
Khaniki, a staunch opponent of dam building and water transfer projects, believes that these are the root causes of multiplying conflicts among local tribes as dams and similar structures have pushed people to ignore riparian rights that were highly respected when dams did not exist.
“One effective way to tackle water paucity in Iran is collecting and treating unconventional water, including wastewater and grey water. The collection and use of agricultural drainage can also help,” he said.
The bottomline is that the water problem in Iran is not as complicated as it seems because workable solutions are available.
But the unfortunate fact is that policy- and decision-makers, most of whom lack the knowhow and skills, are preoccupied with other issues and have no time for the pleas and petitions of the academia and experts.
