A STUDY ON RAINWATER

HARVESTING IN IRAN
 Acknowledgement
Through the means of PowerPoint presentation
slides, we students of Batch 2011-15, Civil
Engineering Department, MANIT, have made a
small effort to study the employed techniques
in the field of Rainwater Harvesting in IRAN. We
express gratitude towards our respective
professor Dr. Ruchi Khare,
NAME Civil Engg. Dept,
OF STUDENT SCH.NO
Mayank Mishra 111111037
MANIT for guiding us to complete the
Tarun Bhatia 111111038
assignment.
Tarun Solanki 111111039
Palash Jain 111111040
Thank you
Deepak Munda 111111041
 Why do we need water harvesting?
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not a
single man's greed.
-Mahatma Gandhi
Water scarcityis the lack of sufficient available water resources to meet the
demands of water usage within a region. According to United Nations Development
Programme, this currently affects around 2.8 billion people around the world, on all
continents, at least one month out of every year and more than 1.2 billion people lack
the access to clean drinking water.
Over-consumption/excessive or unnecessary use of resources, Overpopulation,
Slash and burnagricultural practices indeveloping countries, Technologicaland
industrialdevelopment, Erosion, Habitat degradationleads to the loss ofBiodiversity
(i.e.speciesandecosystemswith itsecosystem services), Irrigation, Miningfor oil and
minerals, Aquiferdepletion, Pollutionor contamination of resources are the major
factors responsible for the eminent water crisis.
ANATOMY OF RAINWATER
HARVESTING
SO WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?.........

WATER HARVESTING TECHNIQUES

Water Harvesting refers to collection and storage of rainwater and also other
activity such as harvesting surface water extracting ground water , prevention of
loss through evaporation and seepage.
Rainwater harvesting has been practiced for more than 4,000 years, it is also a
good option in areas where good quality fresh surface water or ground water is
lacking. In doing so, water harvesting assures a continuous and reliable access to
water. The role of rainwater harvesting systems as sources of supplementary, back-
up, or emergency water supply will become more important especially in view of
increased climate variability and the possibility of greater frequencies of droughts
and floods in many areas.
 MULTIPLE BENEFITS

1. Improvement in the quality of ground water

2. Rise in the water levels in wells and bore wells that are drying up
3. Mitigation of the effects of drought.
4. Attainment of drought proofing
5. An ideal solution to water problems in areas having
6. inadequate water resources
7. Reduction in the soil erosion as the surface runoff is reduced
8. Decrease in the choking of storm water drains and flooding of
roads
9. Saving of energy, to lift ground water. (One-meter rise in
water level saves 0.40-kilowatt hour of electricity)
Techniques of Water Recharge

STORAGE OF RAINWATER ON SURFACE FOR FUTURE

USE

RECHARGE TO GROUND WATER

 Overview of IRAN
Iran, also known as Persia is a democratic country in Western Asia.It is bordered on
the north byArmenia,AzerbaijanandTurkmenistan ;withKazakhstanandRussia
across theCaspian Sea; on the east byAfghanistan andPakistan; on the south
by thePersian Gulfand
theGulf of Oman; on the west byIraq; and on the northwest byTurkey.
With a land area of 1,648,195 km2(636,372sqmi), this country in the
Middle Eastis the 18th-largest country in the world, and with over
77 million people, is the world's 17th-most populous nation. Iran is home to
one of the world's oldest civilizations.
 WATER RESOURCES OF IRAN

Arid and semi-arid regions occupy more than 80 percent of Irans land. The average annual
precipitation is estimated to be 250 mm and the range varies from 50 mm in some parts of the central water
basin to more than 1600 mm in some coastal areas near the Caspian Sea. Meanwhile with respect to the average
annual precipitation in the world with average rainfall of more than 830 mm, Iran is classified among the semi-
arid and arid countries.
High density, short duration rainfall often generates destructive floods. At
present in many parts of the country, the water levels have been falling rapidly. The
demand for drinking water is also has been increasing manifold in the last three decades
due to rapid increase in the population.
THUS, Meeting the water demand is a major challenge in Iran.
Rivers and Water
Resources
Water Resource Potential of Iran
According to studies carried out for formulation of the Iran Water
Comprehensive Plan, the main characteristics of annual precipitation and its
conversion to water resources are shown
Annual Water Resources in Billion Cubic Meters (BCM)
400 BCM Average annual precipitation
130 BCM Renewable water resources
270 BCM Average annual evaporation & transpiration
92 BCM Surface currents
38 BCM Seepage to alluvial aquifers
Water Consumption
 FRESHWATER CONSUMPTION
At present Iran is using 70% of the
t total
renewable freshwater while u
due to the international norms the u
upper limit should be 40% of renewable freshwater; it means that the
remain unexploited renewable fresh water is only 30 % total fresh water
resources including environmental basic needs.
. MAJOR CHALLENGES AND TRENDS IN IRANIAN
WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Excessive withdrawal of groundwater resources

Unbalance sequence between demand and supply of water resources
Demand Management in accordance to priorities set in the National Water Plan
Assessment of total value and cost of water relevant to each basin
Pollution of water resources and its economic and environmental consequences
Efficiency in water irrigation systems
Risk Management of water related natural disaster ( i.e. drought and flood )
Implementation of National Integrated Water Resources Management
Efficient and equitable water price for various uses
Land use planning
Unaccounted for water (UFW)
Iranian Solution to Water Crisis

Iranians have a long and notable history of water resources

development relying on traditional techniques. The
exploitation of floods and rainwater harvesting have been
practiced through flood spreading and groundwater recharge
systems using BandSars, recharge ponds and Ab- Anbars by
ancient Iranians
 Major Accomplishments

1. Construction of a 50 Km water transfer tunnel (Aqueduct) from the Karkheh

River to Chogha-Zanbil south west of Iran more than 3000 years ago;
2. Hydraulic structures - Chogha-Zanbil temple, 3000 years ago;
3. Invention and development of 80000 Qanats for groundwater extraction and
utilizationover the last 3000 years;
4. Dam construction over the last 2000 years;
5. Mizan dam in Shooshtar and bridge-dam of Shooshtar, 500 meters long with
40 bays;
6. Bahram dam on Gharah-Aghage, south of the city of Shiraz, 2000 years ago;
7. Sheikh-Bahaii water allocation scheme, 400 years ago.
8. In recent years, dams with a total capacity of around 20000 MCM have been
built in Iran.
 HYDRAULIC STRUCTURES& DAMS

One of the items in Iran's water resources development plan is the control
and regulation of water resources through dams. In accordance to the ICOLD
identification of large dams, the country has over 220 large dams in operation
and also more than 85 dams under construction which totally control over
46.4 billion cubic meters of country's water resources.
DAMS UNDER OPERATION

No Major Dams 220 85

Total Capacity
32 30
(BCM)

Regulating Volume
46.4 10
(BCM)
SOWMA

Sowma is practiced in northeast of Iran near

the southern border of Turkmenistan. This
area suffers from arid and semi-arid
climatic condition with average annual
precipitation of about 200 mm and
mean annual potential evapotranspiration
rate of greater than 1000 mm.
 BANDSARS

Bandar is composed of a small stream that conducts water from Ephemeral River toBandsars
inner part. This decreases water speed and supplies soil moisture. In the method, natural
location of floodwater spreading is formed on alluvial fans. Bandsar is allot or pond formed by
embankment construction in direction of water flow. So flood is taken, water is retained until
infiltrated.Bandar has a very simple construction. It is made of the following parts:
A shallow water drainage (ephemeral stream called Kale)
A check-dam made of river sediment called Tarkehband Embankment (the main wall of the
dam)
Some parallel subsidiary walls for balancing water spreading called Mewband
A waterway for overflow of water called Goushband
Bandsars covers different areas e.g. 1000 square meters in valleys to 30 ha in low slope
lands.
Thank you for your attention