Challenges and Considerations of Regional Water Market Rights, A Case Study: Isfahan-Borkhar Plain

The provision of appropriate legal instruments for precise oversight of exchanges process and resolution of possible problems is one of the requirements for establishment of efficient water market. The dominant approach of Iran’s water legal system is the incentive of water market formation. However, there are some legal documents such as Matters 27 and 28 of the Fair Water Distribution Law that limit the water exchange process. Although the guidelines for the implementation of these matters have been amended by the Ministry of Energy but there are still the ambiguities in the water market conditions. In this paper, along with the identification the incentive and restrictive laws of the water market, some of the legal challenges of water exchange are presented through the analysis of laws related to the Iran’s water legal system. Then, by examining the status of exchanges within the Borkhar pilot plain, the challenges and considerations for the success of this market are identified. Based on field-level visits in the study area inter-sectional exchanges are of interest, generally. So that, the agriculture-related industries and building industries have a willingness to purchase water from agricultural wells, potentially and actually. The results show that the establishment of an efficient water market needs the consideration of issues such as issuance of a separate document and independent of the land for withdrawals, modification and adjustment of exploitation licenses, equipping wells to smart meters and establishments of groundwater users’ formations by strengthening incentive laws and amending barrier laws.