The Role of Water Resources Constraints on Production and Employment at Different Economic Sectors: A Case study of the Yazd Province

Resource constraint is one of the most important principles in economics, and today this constraint has become more important in the water arena. The mainobjective of the present paper is to evaluate the impacts of water constraint on the achievement of economic goals in Yazd province under the Sixth Development Plan. For this purpose, a combination of Input-Output and Goal Programming is used. In this method, by considering the various constraints including water, it would be possible to achieve multiple goals such as increasing production, improving employment and improving productivity and optimizing water allocation between different sectors. For this purpose, two scenarios are considered. In the first scenario, for stability reason, water and labor productivity in the base year and the target year are assumed as the same, but in the second scenario the increase in productivity considered equal to the goals of the program. The results show that in the first scenario, achieving 8% growth of the program will not be achieved due to the lack of production in the agricultural sector. But in the second scenario, the production is increased but the overall objective of employment is not met. In terms of water, the results of both scenarios indicate that, while the agricultural sectors have consumed their allocated water but have not achieved their production goals. Finally achieving program goals, especially in the agricultural sector, will not be possible except with higher rate of water use efficiency.