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Iran allocates $8B to eliminate border river water flow out

Business Materials 25 October 2014 12:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 25

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has permitted the administration to withdraw $8 billion from Iran's National Development Fund to save water resources flowing out to the neighboring countries.

Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian said that the asset will be allocated to the border projects to save seven billion cubic meters of water resources annually flowing into other countries, Iran's Fars news agency reported Oct. 25.

He went on to add that the total volume of river basins that annually flow out to the neighboring countries hits 10.5 billion cubic meters.

According to a report published by the Research Center of the Iranian parliament, the Islamic Republic has 89 border rivers, of them 68 rivers flow out the country.

Meanwhile only four border rivers are flowing into the country with estimated volume of 5-10 billion cubic meters annually.

Iran's western neighbor Iraq receives billions of cubic meters of water from Iranian area every year, according to the report. Eighteen Iranian rivers flow out into Iraq.

Nine border rivers in north eastern and north western borders flow into Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkmenistan, the report said, adding Atrak river ranks first among them carrying out over 250 million cubic meters of the water into Turkmenistan.

Pakistan also receives 50 million cubic meters of water from Iranian area every year.

Annually also billions cubic meters of water are flowing into Caspian Sea, Oman Sea and Gulf, according to the report.

Iran's total annual water consumption is approximately 93 billion cubic meters, out of which about 92 percent is used in agriculture (86 billion cubic meters), 6.6 percent in municipality (6.18 billion cubic meters), and 1.2 percent in industry (1.12 billion cubic meters), according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO).

Up to 70 percent of water used in the agriculture sector is being wasted, Iranian officials say.

The Islamic Republic is located in an arid zone and the country faces a serious water shortage crisis, however many experts believe that the current water shortage problem is a result of water resources mismanagement, rather than the drought.

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