Water Crisis Versus Water Bankruptcy

Iran’s challenges in the face of water shortage have been long dubbed as “water crisis” but some experts are bringing forward a different terminology and stress that it should be referred to as “water bankruptcy”. 
Kaveh Madani, the training and research deputy at the Department of Environment, is among the initiators of the term and insists that the country’s present conditions cannot be defined as critical but rather bankrupt. 
“A crisis is an acute situation when there is potential to return things to their original status, but bankruptcy means that chances for full recovery have been ruined,” he said, while addressing a conference on the occasion of the National Water Day on Sunday, ILNA reported.  
According to the official, speaking of water crisis means clinging to the belief that depleted rivers and wetlands can be fully restored, groundwater resources can be replenished and water scarcity can be resolved while at present “nature is not capable of such redress”. 
The amount of water owed to the environment for its restoration is much greater than the existing resources and the damage in most parts is irreparable.