TEHRAN — Tehran’s Education Department is going to arrange a festival titled ‘Mehr-e Ab’, literally meaning ‘water kindness’, to promote ethics of water consumption among teachers and students.

The festival will focus on water shortage crisis in the city of Tehran, Masoud Saqafi, the Education Department’s spokesman told the Tasnim news agency on Sunday.

“The festival is aiming at promoting awareness among students as they are responsible for the future of their country,” Saqafi noted.

It will be held on December 13 to 16 and is trying to reform the present water consumption patterns and looking for innovative and practical ideas to revise them, he explained.

“Students can take part in the festival by sending their articles and painting,” he highlighted.

In line with Iran’s policies to fight back against water crisis on a special meeting held on Saturday, Tehran Urban Planning and Research Center experts on water management discussed water shortage particularly in Tehran, Mehr reported.

Sadly, water shortage has not been taken seriously enough in the country and the public believe that the recent rainfalls may have solved the problem.

Limited potable water resources, imbalanced precipitation patterns, droughts, population, industrial pollutants diminishing potable water quality, wasting water, flawed policies and poor management are of reasons causing water crisis in metropolises such as Tehran.

Although 40 percent of the industries and 20 percent of the whole population are centered in Tehran, only two percent of the water resources available in the country are accessible to the capital of Iran.

Broken piping system and some other technical problems are of other reasons intensifying the present situation.

As the major problem lies in the lack of a sound management in this sector, joint meetings are due to be held between ministries and departments responsible for the issue.

As foreseen by international organizations, water crises will spread to other cities of Iran as well and by 2025 Iran might turn into countries such as Libya and Egypt struggling mounting crises caused by water shortage.

According to the Iran Newspaper Iran has ranked second to last among 133 countries in water management which indicates how negligent and irresponsible we were in protecting water.

Water which is a source of life has been taken for granted in Iran which is a total loss for each and every one of us.

MQ