Investigating of Challenges and Opportunities of an Inter-Basin Water Transfer Project (Case Study: Desalination and Water Transfer from the Oman Sea to the Three Eastern Provinces of the Iran)

Water is an important element of the economic and social development of any region, and the availability of safe and clean water is one of the most important issues facing for human. As water consumption increases, the need to extract water sources and use new sources increases. Many problems related to the quantity and quality of water originates from the cities development and the increase in the urban population. On the one hand, successive droughts and the declines of groundwater tables and on the other hand, the increase in water demand have caused other approaches to be used to supply water from other basins. In this research, the opportunities and challenges of transferring water from the Oman Sea and the Persian Gulf to provide drinking water and industrial use in the three eastern provinces of Iran (South Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, Sistan and Baluchestan) have been investigated. The spatial and temporal non-uniform rainfall in the eastern regions of the country and the increase in population growth has caused hydrological and qualitative problems in the region. There is no permanent river in the study area, and these regions need transboundary water from Afghanistan. Rainfall amount in these provinces is between 75 and 200 mm. Therefore, the majority of water supply in these areas is from groundwater resources. Also, in addition to climate change effects, high evaporation in these provinces (more than 3000 mm) is one of the most challenging issues in these three provinces, which has caused a negative water balance and water deficit and a decrease in the quality of groundwater. In current situation, the amount of extra groundwater pumping of these regions is equal to 856 million cubic meters (MCM) per year. Toward overcoming this problem, and assessing all approaches carefully, it can be said that the justification of water need for industry sectors from an economic point of view can only be achieved in the cities near the origin of the transfer (southern border areas close to the Oman Sea) and therefore, a mega project of water transfer can be redefined in such a way that it only needs to supply industrial uses for the cities close to the source.