Examining Drinking Water Security in Rural Areas of Iran: Perspectives from a Quantitative Analysis

Water is one of the basic needs of individuals and communities. In a way, without it, the growth and sustainability of societies is not possible. In recent decades, due to the effects of climate change and human activities, many parts of the world have faced water-related crises. Hence, this issue has jeopardized the sustainability of villages, especially in developing countries. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to quantify drinking water security in rural areas of Iran during the years 2013-2019. For this purpose, this paper has developed a rural water security assessment framework with four dimensions and ten indicators. The scale of the rural water security index is between 1 and 5. Based on findings, three dimensions: “availability”, “accessibility” and “water health and sanitation”, all show an upward trend, reflecting an overall improvement of water-related infrastructure in rural areas. Whereas the “economic value of water” dimension depicts a steady trend. Also, for the period of 2013-2019, the results show the improvement of rural drinking water security in Iran.