TEHRAN, Iran, Sep. 23
Trend:
Razavi Khorasan Province in northeastern Iran is facing a decline in water resources and the city of Mashhad would face severe water scarcity in the next 2 years, said the Managing Director of Khorasan Regional Water Company, Trend reports citing ISNA.
Mohammad Alaei has indicated that rainfall volume during the first half of the current Iranian year (started March 21, 2021) has declined by 65 percent.
He noted the capacity of the province's dams' reserves is 1.5 billion cubic meters and since the start of the current year 41 million cubic meters of water have entered dams' reserves and currently 29 percent of dams reserves are full.
Alaei mentioned that the province has a total of 21,624 water wells that 16,539 wells are function legally and annual water withdrawal is 3.8 billion cubic meters while illegal wells withdraw 129 million cubic meters of water per year. So far 98 percent of legal wells in Khorasan Razavi province have been equipped with meters so excessive water withdrawal would be monitored online.
The province water resources include dams and groundwater resources that about 85 percent of current resources are being used for agriculture section and 10 percent for drinking and sanitation, 3 percent for services, and 2 percent for the industrial sector.
Iran's authorities have blamed the water crisis on a severe drought, noting that rainfall in the region has decreased by almost 50 percent in the last Iranian year (started March 20, 2020).