TEHRAN — Water scarcity is gravely significant and is a critical issue for the country, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said.

“Water shortage is not a fantasy but an actual fact,” he said, adding, “If we hesitate [to sort it out] we might even run into difficulty supplying potable water to some metropolises,” Rouhani said in a live TV interview on Tuesday.  

The government have considered various measures to address this issue such as transferring water from neighboring countries, the president explained.

He went on to say that “in order to raise productivity in agriculture sector we need to implement new irrigation patterns and we have allocated great sum of money last year to put those into practice.”

“We had equipped some 125,000 hectares [of farmlands] with modern irrigation systems,” he added.

“Considerable amount of water is being used in agriculture sector and it is possible to [supply this water] by transferring water from the oceans and seas and of course the private sector is active in this area and the government is supporting them,” he remarked.

Rouhani further noted that the current administration has heavily invested in trans-boundary water resources protection and management.

“We are planning on withdrawing some $8 billion from the National Development Fund for water sector and that’s because of the significance of this issue and that it is also a top priority in the sixth five-year development plan,” the president highlighted.

MQ/MG