Azernews.Az

Some 65 percent of Iran's water sources have been wasted in agriculture sector due to mismanagement, Member of Research institute of Forests and Rangelands Mohammad Darvish said.

Just 6 percent of Iran's 130 billion cubic meters of extractable water sources are used as drinking water.

Darvish said the figure indicates that Iran should not be facing water shortage, ILNA news agency reported. However, due to mismanagements, the country could indeed face some shortage of water, despite the mentioned 6 percent.

Darvish went on to say that, the annual discharge of the wells has been reduced by a half during the last twenty years, while the number of wells has increased from 336,000 in 1995 to 650,000 in 2012 which indicates an increase by 93 percent.

He added that, irrigation efficiency has not increased in accordance with accepted international standards which caused some 65 percent of water sources of agriculture sector to be wasted.

Iranian officials warned about water shortages in big cities during last month.

Tehran Water and Wastewater Company announced in a statement that if the consumption trend and the high temperature continue, there could be water shortages in Tehran, also asked the citizens to consume water responsibly.

According to the reports, Tehran's people experienced water interruption for few hours in some parts of capital on July 25.

Iran is located in the arid zone and over the past 40 years the country has repeatedly faced drought. The drought of 1992-2002 caused considerable damage to agriculture. Quotas for fresh water were applied in some cities including Tehran.