Investigating the necessity of a comprehensive water law in Iran

The requirement of a comprehensive water law is the drafting and revision of laws and the scientific and legal regulation of water distribution laws. The idea of a comprehensive law is consistent in many countries to eliminate the fragmentation of laws. The comprehensive water law means the thematic examination of the laws and legal rules related to water, the realization of which requires spending a lot of time. Lack of water resources and drought, increase in population and excessive consumption of water, the existence of vague and unenforceable laws in the water sector are among the most important challenges of the country, and for the fair allocation and implementation of the correct management of the protection of water resources in watersheds, it is necessary to formulate a comprehensive water law. Failure to examine the legal position of environmental rights, as the cause of destruction of wetlands in Iran on the one hand and the indiscriminate use of river water on the other hand, causes various changes in the water flow regime and destruction of the river ecosystem and It has become wetlands and it shows the importance of drafting a comprehensive water law in Iran. The results of clarifying and drafting a comprehensive law will lead to an increase in social security and public welfare. Failure to pay attention to this type of research will lead to an increase in injustice, destruction of water and soil resources, loss of national rights and rights of people, and destruction of the environment. The purpose of the research is to examine the water laws in Iran in order to solve legal challenges and provide the basis for the development of the country's comprehensive water law.

Research materials and methods include collecting statistics and information on water laws and identifying and separating the main and secondary laws related to water, valid ruling laws from non-valid ruling and obsolete laws, and examining the thematic, conceptual relationship and analysis of water laws from a legal and structural point of view. An organization that includes the statistical population of all laws enacted during the legislative period from 1906 to 2021. In this research, a list of the main and secondary water laws, including valid and obsolete laws and expired, rejected and conflicting laws, was prepared in the form of tables and histograms, and based on the reference, ID number and date of approval, it was collected and analyzed from library and internet sources. It was conducted qualitatively in the form of theoretical framework, content analysis and conceptual model, and the parameters of the number of obsolete, conflicting, expired, repealed and valid ruling laws were quantitatively analyzed.

The research results show that out of 364 water-related laws, only 6.6% are in the form of statutes and about 21.7% are valid laws. 30% are related to protocols, agreements, conventions and contracts. 6.6 percent of the laws of the water sector are explicitly and implicitly repealed, 6% are expired and 29.1% of the existing laws are repealed, which can often be repealed during the revision process and will provide the basis for the development of the country's comprehensive water law.

The analysis of the questionnaire also shows that 95% of the respondents by choosing a very high option and 5% by choosing a high option consider it necessary to revise the comprehensive water law. Among the respondents, 89% believe that the drafting of the comprehensive water law has an effect on attracting people's participation in preserving water resources and watershed management. Therefore, the answer to most of the questions is affirming the necessity of developing a comprehensive water law.