In a move that has appealed to environmentalists and water experts alike, the Council of Ministers on Sunday approved the allocation of $500 million from the National Development Fund to upgrade agricultural irrigation systems across the country.
Led by First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri, the council decided at a meeting on Sunday afternoon to allocate the budget to the development of pressurized irrigation systems to increase the efficiency of water use in the agriculture sector, according to a statement published on the government website Dolat.ir.
The sector guzzles 90% of Iran’s water resources every year with a meager 30% efficiency.
Outdated farming practices and inefficient irrigation methods have forced farmers to illegally channel water from rivers and streams to their farms or dig water wells to tap into groundwater sources without receiving the approval of relevant authorities.
This has exacerbated Iran’s water woes, compounded by the fact that the country is located in one of the most water-stressed regions of the planet.
Iranian water experts agree that upgrading irrigation systems will have a profound impact on the future of the country’s water resources, insisting that it is a leap toward averting a disaster that could otherwise see more than 50 million people displaced.
What is Pressurized Irrigation?
In pressurized irrigation systems—as the name suggests—water is pressurized and precisely supplied to plants through a system of pipes.
As opposed to the surface irrigation systems that are currently used in Iran, pressurized irrigation systems are more effective in crop cultivation. They provide improved farm distribution, control over timing, reduced wastage of land in laying the field distribution network and better use of limited water resources.
According to the International Commission of Irrigation and Drainage, these systems can improve irrigation efficiency by up to 95%, due to the amount of control farmers have over the flow of water.
There are many types of pressurized irrigation systems but the two major ones are drip irrigation systems and sprinkler systems, each of which has different variations that are chosen based on the type of crop and location of land.
As with any advanced system, pressurized irrigation systems require regular maintenance to ensure they are working as intended, but that is a small price to pay to save water.
