Legal Barriers to Water Governance in Iran; With an Overview of the Law of Equitable Distribution of Water

The results of comprehensive and extensive studies of countries and related international organizations indicate that inefficient and disproportionate laws with the existing challenges and lack of foresight with a sustainable view of the natural resources, are the most important obstacles to moving towards good governance. In such cases, legal reform provides an opportunity to improve the situation. Accordingly, in recent decades, many countries with different levels of development and various issues in the field of water, while reviewing the old laws or formulating new laws based on the principles and values ​​of good governance in the context of democracy and with the aim of achieving sustainable development Have tried to better manage their internal or shared water resources in order to prevent the transformation of existing challenges into future tensions. Meanwhile, the comparative-historical evaluation of the Law of Fair Distribution of Water approved in 1982 as the law governing the country's water management system and the forty-fifth principle of the Constitution, which was the reference for its regulation, shows that the consolidation of state ownership and economy on this principle and that law, Based on the laws and ideas of socialist systems, has a quiddity conflict with the fundamental values ​​of democracy and is one of the legal obstacles to move in the direction of governance and effective management of the country's water resources. The results of the present article shows that with the implementation of the law of Fair Distribution of Water, sustainable development in this area is not conceivable and it is necessary to adopt a new law based on the principles of good governance.