Participatory developing strategies for water management in South Khorasan province, Iran

Groundwater over-exploitation has been increasing in Iran. Competing demands have grown in the face of perennial water shortages, a situation which has been exacerbated by drought conditions in the past decade. This paper describes the strategy development process recently undertaken in South Khorasan, Iran, in which the inclusion of stakeholder views was central to the approach. It involved government officials and various public and private sector interest groups. Particular efforts were made to involve well irrigators, who are likely to be heavily impacted by changes required to reduce groundwater pumping to a sustainable level. The paper concludes with a discussion of lessons learned.