Analysis of trend of water consumption in Iranian industries: Divisia index decomposition approach

With population growth and industry development, water demand has dramatically increased in different regions of the world. Rising water demand, climate change, and limited water resources have exacerbated the global water crisis. This issue is very important in a developing country like Iran, which is in the dryland belt of the world. In this regard, the present study investigates the water consumption of Iran’s industrial sector during the period 1996-2017. Using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) method, changes in water demand (in two-digit ISIC level) are divided three factors of economic growth, technical coefficient (inverse productivity) and structure of the industry. Findings based on the fixed base year of 1996 showed that the share of industrial production has increased one and a half times during the period of 5 to 21 years (from 43% to 70%). In contrast, the effect of the technical coefficient on reducing water demand has been halved, reflecting a reduction in the share of productivity improvement in water saving. Also restructuring the industry (in favor of reducing the share of water-intensive industries) somewhat reduced water demand. Then the increase in industrial production has been the main driving force of the water consumption, while improving productivity and increasing share of lower water-intensive industries have not been able to neutralize it. Hence, if the current trend continues, the choice between the survival of the industry or the reduction of water stress will not be far from expected.