First of all awareness among people will have to be increased regarding the inevitable disaster awaiting for us for shortage of usable water. Only about 0.69% of the total water of the world can be used for human consumption , agricultural purposes, or industrial use etc. Of the total usable water we are using about 70% of it for agricultural purposes, out of which in India and  China we are using about 84% of the total water used in agriculture for inundated paddy cultivation. We are using about 3-5 thousand litres of water for producing one Kg of rice through which one human being can survive for about four months. Maintaining harmony with the overgrowing population requirement for industrial use of water will increase significantly. About one third of the total population of the world already suffering from scarcity of water. The ground water level is coming down day by day at an alarming rate.

So, first people will have to be conscious about misuse of water to win the struggle for existence in the land of living. 

For crop production (mainly for paddy cultivation) different innovative crop producing technologies will have to be introduced,where less water is required(like SRI method for paddy cultivation).Drip and sprinkler type of irrigation system should be popularized.

Recycling of used water should be practiced on local basis.

Rain water harvesting should be mandatory for every house, farm etc. 

Initiatives will have to betaken from the end of Government or local cooperatives to construct Dams, reservoirs and embankments etc.

It is a very burning subject right now. A lot of things can be discussed but time is not permitting.

With regards 

Dear Manas, Thank you so much for sharing water consumption in your country . your explanations was complete and comprehensive  

Nowadays, Iran is facing a serious  water crisis, because of long term government mismanagement and lack of planning, water security in Iran need serious policy during this period focused on control and supply and also long-term strategies.

Iran is divided into six key and 31 secondary catchment areas. Besides the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman Basins, all of Iran’s basins are located in the interior, where renewable freshwater sources are limited. Close to half of Iran’s total renewable water is located in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman Basins, representing one quarter of its land mass . Due to high evaporation of surface water, Iranian’s have, for centuries, used traditional methods of water transport and access to supply their freshwater resources. More than 2000 years old, the Qanat is still used in Iran today and is designed to access and transfer groundwater without the use of lifting devices .

Over 84 per cent of Iran is arid or semi-arid; over 50 per cent of the country is either desert or mountain; and 16 per cent of the Iranian landmass has an elevation of 2000m or more above sea level. Streams are seasonal, causing flooding during spring and drying during summer, leading to significant variability in freshwater access for those reliant on surface water resources.Agriculture accounts for over 90 per cent of water use in Iran and Water scarcity is restricting development and increasing uncertainty in this industry, which is one of the key sectors in Iran’s economy.

It has been constructing dams to address water shortages since the 1950s, but this will not address the growing gap between demand and supply. the other strategy is the use of inter-basin water transfers. transfer water from one lake or system to another where scarcity is present . Also, wastewater reuse for agricultural, municipal and industrial purposes. 

Here is a thread that may carry a possible answer for your question, dear Sarah.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/How_can_we_increase_the_awareness_of_the_need_for_innovative_solutions_to_the_worlds_water_problems

Dear Sarah, water shortage during growing season has been a problem in Austria in some years. I´ve seen reports on tv of a tomate farmer who covered his fields with straw before planting the tomate plants and he did not have to use irrigation for his plants. Might be worth while trying.  Besides, somewhere a farmer may have come up with a clever strategy.

Good luck!

best wishes Irene

Dear Irene, Thank you for your comments on my question.you know education and public awareness are certainly very important. During water shortage period, water users like farmer may manage demand and supply and demand and help government and decision makers.  such a intelligent farmer in beautiful Austria. 

Dear Marwan, Thank you so much for sharing this related conversation.

Best Wishes.

Sara

I believe the most common procedures to overcome water shortage is to adopt the procedure  of intermittent or cyclic pattern, which means you should divide the water system into different pressure zones , and pumps the water on intervals (for periods e.g. 10 hours / day...) for each zone, this means your system will be under the effect  of intermittent supply which has in the end adverse effects on quality of water due to intrusion of contaminants during the non-pumping periods , also inequality in distribution of water to all consumers (the faraway customers from the source will be patient to receive their water). this procedure is well documented in the developing countries and an efficient way is to use roof storage tanks or ground storage tanks to collect water during the period of supply and to use the collected water in the tanks during the non-period of supply. Hydraulically, when the consumer uses the water from his roof tank, he will be disconnected from the network , and the procedure of design the intermittent system is different than the procedure followed in the continuous supply systems (in intermittent it is : pressure dependent while in continuous it is demand driven because the pressure is always available in the system)

Hi Sarah,

You may find the attached articles useful.

Cheers,

Nancy

Article Exploring options to grow rice using less water in northern ...

Article Field Water Management to Save Water and Increase in Product...

Article Exploring options to grow rice using less water in northern ...

Nancy,

Thank you so much for sharing publication related 

Best Wishes,

Sara

Dear Shaher ,

Thank you for your comments on my question. as you mentioned water shortage is a serious challenge due to government mismanagement and lack of planning in developing country, so, it need serious policy like what you explained (adopt the procedure of intermittent or cyclic pattern). It would be great pleasure to know about strategies uses by developed countries (If any). 

Dear Sarah

In real terms we should start by acknowledging that there is not "water shortage", but a “shortage” in adequate definition and understanding on how water might be obtained and used, and consideration being given to which will be the impacts to rest of the components of the environment, there will hardly be water shortage if the nature of water (potential) is clearly defined and understood, from where correct policies may be proposed and used accordingly. It is highly needed to find studies that incorporate an understanding on the nature of the water sources. Developing countries commonly use "strategies" defined in regions with opposite conditions: (i) the strategies originally were defined to be applied in temperate regions (developing countries are often in contrasting arid to semiarid regions); (ii) the space-time nature of data is contrasting (most developed countries have several decades of daily data with acceptable geographical distribution); (iii) in developing countries the knowledge of the distribution of their geological conditions is in its infancy; (iv) the used methodology leans mostly on the water-balance, whose results may not be cross-checked by itself; (v) authorities in developing countries lack acknowledgement of the importance of groundwater and in its connection to other components of the environment (despite that almost 98% of the existing water in the continent is groundwater); (vi) studies are mainly directed to one component of the water response (chemistry, isotopes, soil cover, vegetation cover, geomorphology, geological structure, hydraulics); (vii) professionals on the topic with a needed system-wide view perspective are very few in developing countries. So…. the method or strategy that I found to be recommended to be used is one that allows the application and cross-checking of overall field evidence (water-balance concepts, chemistry, isotopes, soil cover, vegetation cover, geomorphology, groundwater hydraulics, basement rock position) because it does not necessarily requires much data, but forces you to be consistent in your findings, from where proposals might be representing more the real world; the methodology is the one based on the Groundwater Flow Systems.

Saludos,jjoel carrillor

Dear Jose,

Thank you for your comment. Hot discussion is ongoing. Some more reading may enrich this discussion! 

Before, any governmental or public policy, Iranians must value water, and change their consumption culture.

Then, perhaps, they should stop exporting their valuable water as if it's dirt cheap.

You should know better what's coming next. They should take strategies for drought protection including:

• drought monitoring
• planting drought resistant plants
• building dams
• cloud seeding
• recycling water
• desalination

Alireza,

Thank you for your comment on the question and important factors you mentioned above

Actually, according to statistics the Ministry of Energy, Iranians use more than 250 liters of water per day per person and their daily consumption can exceed 400 liters per person in some urban areas like Tehran. This means Iran’s water usage is twice as much as the world’s standard despite its limited water availability. This crisis in Iran has three main drivers: rapid population growth and inappropriate spatial population distribution, inefficient agriculture, and mismanagement and rapid speed development.

I think government mismanagement (Water losses as a result of aging distribution infrastructure exceeds 30 percent and ...), lack of long-term planning and climate change (that leads to changes in the frequency, duration and intensity of droughts, floods,...)  has led to the current decline in Iran’s water resources. It should be considered strong governance to rectify the water crisis. In near future, the country with water will be rich. 

Dear Sarah & Alireza,

I am afraid most of your worries are correct; in this context it could be asked:

Is the consumption figure based only on the actual water served to (but not-used) by the population, or on the amount of water “used or served” in an area where other users are involved (industry & agriculture)? In Mexico City, such "statistics" suggest we use more than 400 L/person, but in that figure the water used by industry is included. In actual fact the population of the country uses only 14-15% of the total consumed water, 85-86% is used by the Industry and agriculture. These numbers are within range of the general international water usage. Perhaps Iran has different numbers?

Has any land-planning that incorporated both groundwater functioning and environmental responses being made?

Has land planning being made incorporating different scenarios of population-economic growth-groundwater functioning?

If so, how to deal with natural phenomena as drought? Which are the expected results of altering the environment behaviour by desalinization or dam construction? Usually, in many countries such alternatives lack interdisciplinary studies (or are not available). Studies that should include groundwater related responses. Are such studies on the expected environmental results to such changes available and applied?

Which is the effect of pipe-water "losses", is the water replenishing groundwater (unintended recharge)? Are leaks creating alternative responses as water-table rising or soil salinization or other?

saludos,jjoel carrillor

Jose,

First, I should appreciate you taking time to talk more about water crisis. Regarding water consumption, I meant the second one.Currently Iranians use on average 250 liters of water per day each day, Comparatively, they uses much less water than residents of the US, who lead the world using nearly 400 liters per day, but Iran does not enjoy the abundance of fresh water sources of the Americas or Europe. Iran is semi-arid with an average precipitation of 250 millimeters per year, less than one-third of the average annual precipitation at the global level,So, overconsumption has ravaged the country’s available water resources. 

Also, more than 92 -94% is used in agriculture and less than 7% is allocated to urban and industrial consumption. I donot know any thing about land planning (if any), and I guess these is not such a planning. You know 75% of the precipitation is off-season, and it encourage Iranian to build more dam  to regulate seasonal flows. The dams in Iran are meant to help use and control reservoirs for the long term. The dams in Iran are firstly constructed for the purposes of providing drinking water, irrigation, producing hydroelectricity and as storage during the transfer of water between basins.By applying modern irrigation techniques, developing projects on water transfer between basins, building dams and reservoirs to store water and taking steps towards cooperating with its eastern neighbors, Iran is attempting to find a solution to deal with drought, while Iran has several desalination projects (even plans to sell water to neighboring countries).

“Water crisis” is a term that needs to be deeply understood. Of course as you indicated you have a weakness similar to that of Mexico, a lack of Land-planning (the government develops disregarding the conditions and effects: environmentally and socially); so, any modern (water thirst) activity might be developed and there is a possibility that people might be convinced that urban dwellers are responsible of the “water crisis”. However, have we studied water functioning, mainly groundwater functioning? I see countries as ours with a immense groundwater potential but with insufficient study. There is a strong need to know, understand and act in regard to water....., there is crisis (if any) in the services provided in cities, just because there is more people to be served, the infrastructure is getting older, the new economical activity is placing additional constrains, old techniques and methods are still on the table, the economical activities are contaminating water, construction of dams and the lot is made without understanding their link to the environment and so forth, we should not blame the water drinking child (young or old). We should teach them what does it mean when we talk about water, that we need to fully understand the meaning that 97% of the water in the continent is groundwater, of course you have to be careful about the water quality involved as it varies according to the geological conditions. Saludos,jjoel carrillor

any experience to explain?

Dear Sarah, 

I am sorry, I did not see your further request, could you please be more specific about the requested experience, thanks and saludos,jjoel carrillor 

Dear Sarah Saadati, MSc,

The addressed issue is leaning on several aspects.

What is water shortage? In Mexico, as it is surely in Iran, more than 95% of the water available (present) is as groundwater. Surely it is good to know what is going on above the ground level. However, it is also needed to understand how the most important source of water is manifesting its-self on the ground surface (soil, vegetation, spring, wetland, saline-soil) based on the geological framework. Once you know groundwater is functioning, it may be managed accordingly. In Mexico water shortage means poor water water management. By understanding its functioning it is meant to know how it moves in different flows from their recharge to discharge location (all of these flows are above the basement rock, ie Cambrian), Note that each flow will behave differently according to its hierarchy (local intermediate and regional) and it quality and isotopic signature as well. To know how groundwater behaves is most important as it represents the main water source in the continent.

Please find the reference below. Should you need any more information, please do advice accordingly, saludos,jjoel carrillor

GRAVITATIONAL SYSTEMS OF GROUNDWATER FLOW

Theory, Evaluation, Utilization

JÓZSEF TÓTH

University of Alberta, Canada; E¨otv¨os Loránd University, Hungary

Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521886383