Iran wasting staggering amount of water every year

By  Trend

An official with Iran's National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company said a staggering 700 million cubic meters of water are wasted in the country annually.

"The total amount of water loss in Iran amounts to 25.5 percent," Ali Seyedzadeh told ILNA.

He further said that the average amount of water loss in developed countries stands at 15 percent every year, adding that Iran, based on the country’s 6th Development Plan, should reduce this amount by correcting its consumption patterns.

He further said that 1.5 trillion toman is needed in order to tackle this problem.

Some 170,000 illegal water wells in Iran have emerged as a major problem for the water authorities trying to curb the high extraction and consumption rates, namely in key agricultural regions.

In spite of all warnings, the excessive withdrawal of water from aquifers continues in the agriculture sector, which is hardly justified or profitable.

About 92% of the country’s water resources are used up by unsustainable and wasteful farming practices.

Experts predict that the country’s water scarcity will hit crisis level by 2025, when available renewable water will be less than 1,000 cubic meters per capita, down from 2,000 cubic meters in 1950.

They say if water consumption patterns do not change in the near future, many parts of the country will turn into barren desert while entire towns and villages will become uninhabitable.