The declining trend of water storage in the dams of Mazandaran Province is continuing for the third consecutive year, creating concerns regarding the supply of water needed by agricultural and household sectors in the coming months.
Currently, about 147 million cubic meters of water are stored in the dams of the northern province while the storage capacity of dams in the province is about 328 mcm. It means that only about 45% of the reservoir capacity of Mazandaran dams are filled, the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven reported.
Two years ago this time, the province’s dams had 264 mcm of water. The figure decreased by 17 mcm and reached 247 mcm last year. However, the current volume of water in the dams is 100 mcm less than last year, indicating the continuous drought and declining precipitation in the region.
Mazandaran Province cultivates 72 kinds of agricultural products, the annual yields of which amount to nearly 7 million tons. The province accounts for only 2.5% of Iran’s arable land, yet produces 7% and 11% of the country’s agricultural products in weight and value respectively per year.
The province is a major producer and exporter of citrus fruit. Mazandaran’s citrus fruit orchards stretch across 112,000 hectares, which produce orange, tangerine, lemons, limes and bitter orange. The province also accounts for 38% of the country’s overall rice production.
Only 12% of the water used in the northern province are provided from surface water resources and 88% come from groundwater resources, which include 740 wells and 373 springs.
Over-extraction from renewable and underground water resources in Mazandaran has become a serious challenge, as close to 180 million cubic meters of water are extracted from aquifers via 2,500 unauthorized wells in the area.
There are about 142,000 authorized wells in the region, from which 1.3 million cubic meters of water are withdrawn annually.
