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Aab, Khak, Machin [Water, Soil, Machine]; (Monthly)
Scientific, Economic & Agricultural
Sept. 1998, No. 41
By: Hadi Mir Abolqasemi
Summary: Appearance of the qanats and the excavation operations for the
purpose of irrigation of lands in Iran covers an area of 400,000 km the cost of which is
estimated, based on the current prices, to be about 2X10000000000. The idea of modernizing
the equipment used in exploitation of water resources in 1319 (1940), launched by the
foreign experts, was the main factor responsible for the crisis of water resources in Iran
since 1961. Nowadays, an excessive amount of 4.9 billion cubic meters of subterranean
water reserves is consumed annually. In view of the different investment facilities, a
return to the ancient irrigation methods, controlling and storing water floods through
implementation of small projects for irrigation is the best choice to protect and develop
water resources to restore life to the Plateau of Iran. (Plans such as pot irrigation,
stamp irrigation, irrigation with salty water, irrigation through water reservoir in the
arid regions and cultivation of seeds in the plants' roots)
Text:
1. INTRODUCTION
The decade of 1340 (in the Iranian calendar year) can be considered a turning point in the
crisis of water resources, in particular the underground water resources, in Iran. The
idea of modernizing the equipment used in exploitation of water resources, conceived since
1319 (1940) with the entry in the Iranian decision-making and executive systems of the
French expert Henri Gobler, was materialized and developed to the extent that it raised,
despite great social changes which resulted in evacuation of villages and reduction of
agricultural activities, the uncontrolled consumption of water, especially the
subterranean water reserves. According to the latest data, an estimated surplus of 4.9
billion cubic meters of the underground water reserves are consumed annually. Studies on
the population displacement, extent of the rain-fed fields and the consumption level of
subterranean resources shows that from 1345 to 1365 (1966 to 1986) the Iranian population
has increased 1.9 fold while consumption of underground waters has increased 3.5 fold.
Nonetheless, the extent of irrigated fields during 1352-1367 has merely increased 1.34
fold. During the same period, exploitation of surface resources was developed, rural
population decreased from 62 percent to 45 percent and Iran became an importer of
strategic agricultural products.
The author is of the opinion that one of the factors which caused or aggravated the water crisis in Iran was lack of attention to traditional management and exploitation of water resources, since success of modern management planning process in each country depends upon capabilities and characteristics that the management borrows from the traditional culture. Therefore, more the modern management is in line with the local skills and conditions the more positive results will be achieved.
More than two third of the Iranian territory is made up of desert and semi-desert
areas. In these regions, traditional management of water resources was being passed on
from one generation to another and thanks to efficient methods it employed, it had managed
to transform, over 3,000 years, the barren lands into green and pleasant gardens.
Undoubtedly, this management was composed of elements and particularities which could be
considered as an axis in training and generalization of the new methods. The present
article analyzes some of these elements and particularities whiles focusing on water
projects as a characteristic of traditional management. The reason for this is that the
macro plans on water resources, on the one hand, are less likely to achieve the predicted
economic goals and targets due to the fact that they need excessive expenses and, on the
other, these plans normally are attended with great difficulties, which appear to be
transmissible in view of sustainable development aspects and environmental protection.
2. WATER, A VALUABLE AND STRATEGIC ELEMENT IN IRANIAN CULTURE
In Iran, water is considered a sacred blessing, and is so valuable that it has found a
particular place in the beliefs and culture of the people and it is reflected as symbols
in their customs and sayings. The respect for water is, to some extent, due to the
changing climatic conditions in which the local people live and their constant struggle to
get access to water. But the main role in generating this valuable conception of water was
played by religions practiced by Iranians. In the Zoroastrian religion, which was the most
accepted one among Iranians before the advent of Islam, (by 620 in the Christian calendar)
Anahita or Nahid was considered as the goddess of water, symbol of sincerity and loyalty.
The Relief of Rostam (dating back to more than 2500 years ago) shows this goddess with a
tall stature and a crown studded with jewels giving a ring to the Achaemenid King as a
sign of power and authority. Similarly, some part of Yashtha is devoted to describing and
paying homage to Anahita. It reads: "I adore Anahita who is everywhere, is enemy of
the monsters, preys God, merits praise and blessing in this material world. She is the
sacred creator of creatures and the globe."
The importance attached to the water in the Holy Quran breed the concept in the minds of Iranians that this blessing is clean, a cleaner product and a symbol of brightness, life and prosperity. The Iranian literature, art and culture widely express this high conception of water. One can say the water was always regarded as a sacred, invaluable and strategic substance for Iranians.
3. EMPIRE OF THE QANATS
Many people believe that the civilizations were only born and developed by the side of the
rivers and current waters but the astonishing discovery of Qanats in the barren lands of
Iran and their role in the formation and continuation of life of cultures and
civilizations in these areas is so evident that it calls the genuineness of this
hypothesis into question. Qanat which was created for the first time in Iran is one of the
most visible signs of success of man's struggles to overwhelm shortage of water in dry
areas.
Experts put the number of Qanats built in Iran at about 50,000 which stretch for 400,000 km (equal to the space between the earth and the moon). Innovative examples of qanats exist in Iran and the depth of the deepest one is estimated to be 450 meters (Keikhosrow Qanat in Gonbad). The excavated itinerary of these qanats were about 120 km.
Figure 1 shows the concentration of qanats in part of Jowain Plain in Khorassan Province. Some 800 km of qanat (equal to 1.6 km to 2 km) have been dug out in this region extending for 500 km.
If all the qanats dug out in Iran are estimated to be 400,000 km (with their pillars and furnaces counted) and if the performance of a four-member group of excavation composed of a well sinker, a person charged with maintaining water carrier, a person charged with carrying mud away and a person pulling the wheel is put at 2.5 m/day, about 640X1000000 persons/days work has been done on the average, 213,300 people have worked during life of the qanat (3,000 years).
This colossal excavation work is worth of 6X10000000000000 dollars or 2X10000000000 rials based on the current prices, that is, the project costs equal the construction expenditure of a modern irrigation network in 10X1000000 acre or twenty times more than the average loans granted by the World Bank to set up irrigation system since the mid-1980s.
The amplitude of the qanat indicates a continued, exhausting and hazardous struggle to overwhelm draught. Such a great undertaking undoubtedly would have been impossible to be carried out without a rich and encouraging culture.
The same effort had created systems and traditions that influenced social systems and
the culture of local people of desert areas. This period of Iran's social history can be
gloriously called "The Empire of Qanats".
4. IRRIGATION, THE GREATEST EXPLOITATION OF THE SMALLEST RESOURCES
Wonderful techniques employed by the local people in Iran's desert regions reveal that
they had gained invaluable experiences and skills in making optimum use of the available
resources. The pot irrigation, stamp irrigation, cultivation of seeds in the roots of
camel's thorn, irrigation with salty-water are examples of these precious experiences.
In the pot irrigation method, the farmers put a pot into the soil so that its bottleneck come out. Then they put some seeds of water melon round the pot and filled it with water. The moisture progressively exuded from the pot and provided the grounds for the growth of the plant. In stamp irrigation, at the end of the rainy season, a number of men stamped the soil flat to harden it enough to prevent evaporation of water stored in the soil. Afterwards, they dig holes in the hardened surface of the ground and put their crops in them. Also in the dry regions of Iran, the farmers dug out the ground deep by three meter and found the roots of the camel's thorn. They created a split in the roots of the plant and put their seeds in it. The seeds absorbed the water of the roots and grew without needing irrigation.
5. SMALL PROJECTS, GREAT MYSTERY OF LIFE IN DESERT AREAS
The inhabitants of Iran's desert and semi-desert areas have always been successful in
finding innovative ways to make optimal use of water resources. The reason for this
success lies in the fact that they attached importance to small projects for storing and
exploiting water resources on large scale. Most of these methods are now abandoned and
rarely used, but their trace can be seen in some areas in the country. In most parts of
Iran where some seasonal river existed, small projects to store and exploit floodwaters
had been implemented. The usage of floodwaters in irrigating the lands has a long record
in Iran. The use of dikes in the provinces adjacent to the Central Desert of Iran are
examples of this way of irrigation. Floodwaters were stored behind the barriers and later
on exploited by the cultivators. Figure 2 shows a small basin in Hormuzgan Province. This
region lacked permanent surface water or subterranean water reserves, but the cultivators
used floodwaters for their agricultural lands and palm groves.
In the figure 3, a small oasis located in Hormuzgan Province is indicated. It is surrounded with high embankments of soil and fully irrigated by the floodwaters. Another form of these kinds of oasis is shown in figure 4. A large number of water reservoirs had been created in the deserts and vast and arid plains to provide drinking water. Today the trace of some of them can be seen in the area. The capacity of this water reservoir is between 300 to 3000 cubic meters but occasionally it reached 100,000 cubic meters.
The remains of a water reservoir have today been unearthed on Lark Island with its water container being still sound. This water reservoir does not date back to the very ancient time, but it is considered an example of the traditional methods of reserving water. Nowadays, one of the problems blamed on the qanats is that they continually discharge the subterranean water resources. But the Iranians, conscious of the phenomenon, acted skillfully in this field: During the rainy months of the year, they closed the floodgates near the outlet of the current so as to reserve the water at the mouth of the current. A Japanese designer of the underground dams has referred to this issue. He has probably adopted the idea of underground dams from this method.
In the Iranian traditional management of water, various methods were employed to make optimal use of small resources and numerous small water projects were implemented.
Describing all of them is not in the scope of some articles. These methods led to the formation of traditional agricultural and irrigation systems and, in brief, the traditional management of water resources in Iran. According to the experts, a dearth of identical systems in some parts of the world, such as the Australia Desert, despite being analog to Iran's dry regions, caused that these regions remain today uninhabited and uncultivated. One can say that exploitation of limited resources and small water projects were the mystery of continuation of life in Iran. Today, they can efficiently contribute to success of plans for the country's water resources.
What is called today "a small plan" comprises in fact a number of plans for storage and exploitation of surface and underground currents, flood controlling and artificial feeding of aquifers. The figure 5 indicates one of these plans. It shows a small water reservoir next to the Bazeh Sar-Hesar Floodway located in the Plain of Mashhad. This reservoir stores between 100,000 to (150,0009) cubic meters of floodwaters which are used for nearby agricultural lands. Some of these reservoirs have been constructed by the farmers in the said region. They evacuate the water stored in the reservoirs three times per year, normally refilling them with water during winter and spring. With a cost equal to the cost of construction of a medium-size reservoir dam one can build an identical reservoir and store and consume 4.5X1000000000 cubic meters of floodwaters, without facing problems such as sedimentation or management-linked difficulties. In brief, the small water plans can be implemented, on small scale, by all the Iranians across the country.
6. CONCLUSION
The comparison between the crisis of water resources in Iran, spanning over the past 35
years, and what was said regarding the elements and particularities of the traditional
management of water resources indicates that the crisis was a premature one, and if, in
designing the previous plans, the development and betterment of traditional methods- in
particular, small projects- had been considered more important than the development of
modern methods, or at least both of them had advanced in parallel with each other, the
actual problem would not have existed today.
In the first and second development plans, the construction of more than 30 colossal dams, a large number of small dams and the building of many tremendous networks of irrigation and drainage systems as well as development of irrigation methods on large scale, have been predicted.
Despite the necessity to pay more attention to these projects, the vast propagation by mass media on these projects in recent years have negatively influenced the public opinion- in particular, the mind of the villagers and the cultivators- toward the small plans. In the few past years, the author has visited many parts of the Central Province, Khorassan, Hormuzgan, Fars and Yazd. Asked what were, in their view, the possible solutions to the shortage of water in the region, most of cultivators - and even the old men- responded that constructing dams, digging out deep wells, giving subsidies and grants to cultivators for implementation of irrigation under pressure plans would solve their problem. None of these methods is, however, suitable for the above-mentioned areas. Few people supported smaller projects and society-oriented methods (such as exploitation of floodwaters or small storage plans). They termed them as non-applicable and problematic. This is while these regions were among the first ones to exploit water reserves in smaller projects in the past. The publicity expenditures for inauguration of a smaller water plan equals or even exceeds the total amount of the implementation of the plan. What is important, however, is that developing such plans is necessary for sustainable development of Iran's water resources and, if neglected in preparing water plans, the country will in the near future face more complicated problems as to the water resources.