بررسي راهكارهاي مقابله با خشكسالي و كم آبي در منطقه سيستان

Investigation of Different Procedures Confront with Drought and Water Shortage in Sistan Area

Sistan area, with an area of 8000 km^2, is located in southeast of Iran in Sistan and Balouchestan province. The only source of water in the region is Hirmand river, which originates from Afghanistan. Drought and water deficit in the area is because of inadequate discharge of this river. There are two reasons for this water shortage : natural droughts, which have occurred 14 times in the last century (the last one was in 1999-2000). In that year, the river delivered 0.22 billion cubic meters, and its damages were more than 220 billion Rials in the agricultural sector. The second reason is water storage and use in Afghanistan. Drought can be defined as sensible and significant storage of water, and every process or program that increases fresh- water storage is a kind of ʹalleviating drought and water shortage. To study different measures, some characteristics of the sistan area is reviewed. Based on the dependence of the area to Hirmand river, and high evaporation losses from water surfaces measures such as building more hydraulic structures to store water, change of agricultural practices, teaching courses like farming in dry regions, and substitution of risk management instead of water -crisis management are recommended.