TEHRAN — Supplying potable water to people nationwide has been turned into a predicament for the country, Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian warned.

Currently, 86 percent of renewable water resources are being exploited in the country, while using up to 40 percent of these resources in the world is deemed as a water crisis, Chitchian said on Tuesday in a national conference on water economics, IRNA news agency reported.

“Despite numerous dams being built in various places we are experiencing difficulties in supplying drinking water, therefore we have to come up with big water transferring projects which are extremely costly,” he explained.

Precipitations in Iran is one third of the world average which results in two centigrade rise in the temperature and the heat would consequently drives greater evaporation, he added.

Emphasizing on the significance of cutting back on water consumption to achieve sustainable development in water sector he regretted that low water prices would not motivate any investors to put money into this sector. 

“We are so short of water that we have to halt some profitable projects in the country,” the minister said.

Supplying potable water is a top priority but unfortunately the budget which must be spent on the projects are yet to be allocated, he highlighted.

Climate change leads to higher temperature and accordingly higher level of evaporation.

This week many media outlets have reported records of the highest temperature in the Middle East and according to the researches done by Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science the temperature rise is twice in speed in this region.

According to a report by World Resources Institute Iran holds the 13th place among top 33 water-stressed countries and 14 of the countries in this list are located in the Middle East.

MQ/MG