Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 2
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Water reserve behind reservoirs in Iran has reached 19.39 billion cubic meters, indicating a 8.5 percent increase from year to year, Iran's Mehr news agency reported Nov. 2.
However, the reserves are still less than 40 percent of reservoirs' total capacity.
Iran's dam reservoir input reached 950 million cubic meters during the current crop year which began Sept. 22, 2013, indicating a six percent fall compared to same period of last year.
Dam reservoir output from the beginning of the current crop year also stood at 2.08 billion cubic meters, 5 percent less compared to 2.19 billion cubic meters of output in the same period of the preceding year.
For the time being, the total water capacity in the dam reservoirs is about 47.4 billion cubic meters.
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.
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.