Drought and Water Crisis in Plains of Iran: A Case Study of Marvdasht and Khanmirza Plains, Fars and Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, Iran

Water consumption rate in the plains of Iran is very alarming. In most provinces, during the past few years, low rainfall, lack of appropriate nutrition for aquifers and continuous pumping are the causes of a significant decrease in groundwater level of the plain. Among the most important and manifest consequences of groundwater level dropping are land subsidence, increase of the cost of drilling deeper wells and water pumping, decrease of the level of water of wells and their quality, and drying of springs. In this research, the areas that suffered the most damage due to water crisis in terms of the indiscriminate withdrawal and excessive drop over the past few years are specified and evaluated through accurate field observations. The obtained results from the investigation of indiscriminate withdrawal of the wells, rainfall decrease and sharp fall in ground water level, especially in the past few years are indicative of a 6-year drought period in Fars province and a 4-year one in Charmahal-Bakhtyari province. The results showed that if the current trends continue, without implementing serious actions to reduce excessive withdrawal in Fars and ChaharMahal-Bakhtiari provinces, we will encounter severe environmental consequences and economic and social problems in near future.