Scholar warns on water crisis west of Asia

Tehran, Feb 13, IRNA – Water shortage crisis in the region due to change in the precipitation pattern, would entail security and military consequences and to check the consequences, regional cooperation for strengthening water diplomacy is needed, said a scholar. Member of the Board of Directors of Iran Geopolitics Association Morad Kavianirad said facts and figures show that because of a number of factors in the past few decades, including population growth, expansion of industry, growing urbanism, quantitative-oriented approach to development, poor management of water resources, expansion of inefficient agriculture, climatic changes, and change in the precipitation pattern, water resources have been highly depleted, putting future of civilization and man life at danger. He said west of Asia where large number of countries lie on the world's desert band and are in low precipitation rate and water scarcity, have been facing severe challenges in terms of water resources in the past few decades due to wrong policy making. He referred to the national seminar of water diplomacy and hydro politic opportunity west of Asia, due to be held in March, and said it aims to propose water diplomacy frameworks and find breakthroughs to defend rights both regionally and internationally. 1378/IRNA