Water Policy in Water-Stressed Regions: The Case Study of Iran

Water shortages are prevalent in many global regions due to environmental factors, changes in users' behavioural patterns, lifestyle, population growth, dated water infrastructure, etc. Therefore, it has been proposed that for such issues of international scale, policies should be made globally and implemented locally. Although the nature and extent of water challenges differ between water-stressed regions in the world, the way problems are identified, managed, dealt with and solved at policy level offers lessons to be learnt. This chapter looks at the Middle East - with special reference to Iran - and its approach to managing its water resources. It investigates the consumption patterns, natural resources, customer/provider relationship as well as policy-making mechanisms in the context. Critical analyses of the findings help to highlight what works, and areas for improvement. The chapter concludes with a series of suggestions at policy level, which can be envisaged as context-driven or context-independent and for each category, practical measures are proposed to inform implementation in this and other contexts.