Serious warning about the reduction of underground water resources

According to Energy Press, this alarming trend shows the indiscriminate use of these resources and the inability to restore and revive them, which has led to phenomena such as land subsidence in different areas.
Underground water resources are extremely important in Iran, because about 55% of the country’s total water consumption comes from these sources. In some areas, especially dry and semi-dry provinces such as Yazd and Kerman, this amount even reaches 80%. Due to the lack of rainfall and the increase in water consumption in recent years, the amount of groundwater extraction has increased sharply and these resources have reached a critical level.
According to reports published in 1403, Iran loses about 5 billion cubic meters of its non-renewable water resources every year. These resources have suffered a severe decline due to over-harvesting and inability to regenerate naturally. As a result of this process, unfortunate phenomena such as land subsidence have occurred in many regions of the country. In order to deal with this crisis, since 2013, the Ministry of Energy has started a project entitled “Revival and balancing of underground water resources”.
The aim of this plan is to reduce unauthorized withdrawals from underground water and rebuild underground reservoirs. However, this plan has not had much success so far and has not been able to achieve its main goals due to the lack of strong laws, management problems and conflicting interests between different sectors. The deficit of Iran’s underground water reservoirs has reached 48 billion cubic meters in recent decades, which requires fundamental changes in water management policies and strategies.
On the other hand, experts believe that due to the lack of proper management and the continuation of indiscriminate harvesting, many regions of the country will face the risk of reducing food resources. For this reason, various strategic documents such as “water road map” and “food security document” have been compiled for long-term horizons in order to provide the necessary solutions to protect these vital resources. Finally, the continuation of the current process of reducing underground water resources. Not only is it a serious threat to the country’s water security, but it can also lead to bigger crises such as food shortages and forced migrations. Therefore, fundamental changes in water resources management policies and productivity of existing resources seem necessary.
By the horizon of 1411, more than 20 billion cubic meters will be added to the volume of aquifers and wetlands
The crisis of lack of underground water resources threatens not only the security of drinking water but also the supply of food, and in this regard, it seems necessary to compile strategic documents such as “Water Road Map” until the horizon of 1420. These programs emphasize on revising water withdrawal policies and increasing the efficiency of water resource management.
As Mousavi Khansari, a member of the Board of Directors of Iran’s Sustainable Water and Soil Association, said that according to the seventh development plan, 10.7 billion cubic meters should be added to the country’s wetlands and water reservoirs by the 1407 horizon, and five billion cubic meters should be added to the volume of aquifers. to be
According to him, according to this document, more than 20 billion cubic meters should be added to the volume of aquifers and wetlands up to the horizon of 1411, and according to the water road map, up to the horizon of 1420, more than 35 billion cubic meters should be added to the water table and the water rights of wetlands to feed the underground water table and wetlands.