Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 7
By Umid Niayesh - Trend: The level of Iran's underground water resources have approximately halved, deputy of the Water and Waste Water Macro Planning Bureau of Iranian Ministry of Energy, Hedayat Fahmi said, IRNA news agency reported.
He went on to note that, the country's underground water resources have decreased from 92 billion cubic meters to 48 billion cubic meters during the last ten years.
Fahmi underlined that a reduction of precipitation, increasing of evaporation and climate changes as well as rising water consumption have led to sharply fall in underground water sources` level.
Earlier in mid-October, speaking about the renewable water resources in Iran, Deputy Energy minister of Iran, Sattar Mahmoudi there were 130 billion cm, now there are 92 billion cm of underground water resources.
On Oct. 12, Mehr news agency quoted Mahmoudi as saying 84 percent of Iran's total area is either dry or semi-dry, while only 16 percent of the country is humid and semi-humid.
Iran continues to have struggles with droughts and dry climate. In recent years, the country has experienced several droughts, especially in the south where it gets hit by violent sand storms that engulf several cities.
Sand storms generally enter Iran from neighboring Iraq where desertification has increased over the last two decades due to war.