Is the Revival of Iran's Groundwater Possible?

As drought and lack of rainfall gradually become a serious issue in Iran, an official from the Ministry of Energy announced that over 110 billion cubic meters of groundwater reserves have been used in recent years. According to IRNA, Sattar Mahmoudi, Deputy Minister of Energy, stated that it would take 15 to 20 years for groundwater to stabilize, assuming that proposed plans are implemented. On Saturday, during a meeting on modern methods of groundwater management and drought adaptation, he announced that the government would allocate resources for the revival of groundwater resources. The Deputy Minister expressed hope that the implementation of this plan would prevent excessive extraction of groundwater resources and help balance strategic water reserves. However, what methods exist to protect water resources and restore groundwater levels to previous amounts? Abbas Mohammadi, an agricultural engineer and environmental activist residing in Tehran, told Radio Farda: "The most important thing we can do for the revival of water resources is to improve irrigation methods in agriculture and move from traditional flooding methods to pressure irrigation and other modern methods, such as greenhouse or hydroponic systems, which can reduce water consumption by up to one-tenth. However, in other agricultural methods, including orchards where greenhouse irrigation is not possible, we can reduce water consumption by at least 30 to 40 percent by converting traditional agriculture to pressure irrigation or rain, drip, and pressure irrigation methods, which is easily achievable. The problem is the investment needed for this, which farmers and gardeners usually do not have. About ten million tomans are needed per hectare to implement the necessary piping for pressure irrigation. We have no choice but to extract groundwater, but this extraction can be balanced so that groundwater gradually revives. This is supported by rainfall, and we do not extract from the original water reserve. I mean, with this investment, which is less than the investment in dams, we can reduce water consumption." The Deputy Minister of Energy announced that today the country has reached the conclusion that water is a priority, without detailing the groundwater revival plan, stating that its implementation would restore 5 billion cubic meters of strategic water reserves annually. However, considering the realities of the water issue in Iran, including drought and the consumption culture of society, how feasible can such plans be? Behrouz Abdolvand, an energy and environmental issues researcher residing in Germany, believes that the water issue in Iran is not merely a political issue that the government can decide on and the people will follow. This is a national problem, and the Iranian people must also be made sensitive to this issue. The consumption culture is not a political issue that the government can decide to implement or not. We have a culture of excessive consumption in Iran, and the closer we get to the issue, the more we realize that it partly depends on people's consumption habits, who do not have social responsibility towards consumption. However, urban and household consumption is a smaller issue compared to agricultural consumption. The more fundamental issue that has severely damaged groundwater reserves is agriculture. A significant number of uncontrolled wells have been dug, and farmers have used groundwater for agricultural production. Agricultural production is not modern enough, and despite many efforts in this area, it is not modern enough to use groundwater efficiently. I believe that if sufficient investment is not made in modernizing the agricultural sector, any program will fail." Sattar Mahmoudi, Deputy Minister of Energy, regarding water stress in the country's cities and the fact that this year's rainfall has decreased by 20 percent compared to the long-term average and by 14 percent compared to last year, stated that last year 517 cities faced water stress, and this year 10 more cities have been added to them.