YAZD -- President Mohammad Khatami on Tuesday stressed the key role of the people in state affairs and appealed to Iranian officials to be responsive to the demands of the masses, IRNA reported.

He made the appeal in his hometown of Ardakan in the desert Province of Yazd, central Iran, with the announcement that 'massive developments are in the making' in the Islamic Republic.

"All the government officials and those in the service of the country have received their credibility from the people and we are all responsible to the nation," Khatami said.

"My biggest honor is representing the Iranian nation and I am the president of all Iranians," he added.

"The government will not manage to drive ahead economic, political, cultural and social objectives of the system without reliance on the loyal nation," the Iranian president declared.

People are the creators of the Islamic Revolution and they are responsible to protect it, Khatami said.

The mystery behind Iran's backwardness in the course of the history is that the country had been ruled by totalitarian regimes, which depended on imperialists and "we believe that the Islamic Republic tore apart this chain of misery," he added.

Khatami sounded alarm over a crippling drought, which has been afflicting Iran in recent years and called for optimal consumption of 'this vital substance'.

"Given that the average rainfall in our country is lower than that of the world, it is important to make an optimal use of this vital substance," he said.

"Currently, several billion cubic meters of water flow into the sea or flow out of the country," Khatami said, adding, "The government has built several dams to make optimum use of water and has several other dams under construction." Iran has seen relatively sufficient rainfall this year with the exception of the southern and southeastern provinces of Fars, Kerman and Sistan-Baluchestan.

Iran is building 68 dams to contain runoff waters in the semiarid country which is still reeling from a three-year severe drought, Energy Minister Habibollah Bitaraf said last year.

The country is further studying to construct 120 other dams, he said, adding 33 percent of Iran's water resources are wasted annually.

Iran last year suffered from its fourth consecutive year of drought, said to be the worst in 30 years. A UN official put the damage from the drought at 2.5 billion dollars.

Last year, the drought cost the country 3.5 billion dollars.

Southern, southeastern, central and eastern part of Iran were the most badly hit, where water rationing was implemented in most of the main cities, with water transferred in tankers to rural areas.