TEHRAN – Some 15 trillion rials (about $360 million) has been allocated for implementing watershed and aquifer management projects in the current Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2020.

The budget will be funded through the National Development Fund, said Houshang Jazi, the director general of the watershed management and soil protection office at the Forest, Range, and Watershed Management Organization.

Last year, some $200 million had been allocated for the projects, ISNA quoted Jazi as saying on Thursday.

Watershed management aims at the sustainable distribution of its resources and the process of creating and implementing plans, programs, and projects to sustain and enhance watershed functions that affect the plant, animal, and human communities within the watershed boundary. 

Features of watershed that agencies seek to manage include water supply, water quality, drainage, storm water runoff, water rights, and the overall planning and utilization of watersheds. Landowners, land use agencies, storm water management experts, environmental specialists, water use surveyors and communities all play an integral part in watershed management. 

The vision of the aquifer management is to identify and map aquifers at the micro level, to quantify the available groundwater resources, and to propose plans appropriate to the scale of demand and aquifer characteristics, and institutional arrangements for participatory management.