Tehran — Iranian media outlets have revealed an open message sent by the “Water Foundation” to President Hassan Rohani warning of “escalating conflicts in Iranian provinces over water sharing in the near future” as the country is facing an unprecedented water crisis.

“In the near future, competing for limited water resources will expand, and conflicts over shares will spread across the country,” the Iranian Water Corporation said in an open statement to Rohani, signed by 110 experts, researchers and scientists in the water field.

The head of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament, Alaa El-ddin Boroujerdi has confirmed that the “water crisis” has turned into a security issue and the parliament established the (Water Security Committee) to track the repercussions of the crisis.

“The water resources in the country are very limited; Iran is one of the driest places in the world and we have a water crisis that has practically become a security issue,” Boroujerdi criticized 38 years of neglecting the water crisis in his country, which is the age of the Islamic revolution.

Rahim Maidani, water official at the Iranian Energy Ministry, said that 295 cities, including 6 large cities, are facing drought and water crisis in the country.

Demonstrations have been launched in cities such as Ahwaz, which accuses the government of directing water towards the Persian provinces in the center of Iran, as well as Isfahan, what increases the complains is the of lack of water, where some Iranian officials warned of the emergence of internal conflicts in the near future because of the water crisis in the country.

Two years ago the former agriculture minister Issa Klanter warned of the crisis and said that 50 million Iranians would have to emigrate over the next two decades in order to survive.

“Misusing and wasting water resources are due to mismanagement in the field of water and natural resources,” Toronto-based Iranian environmental expert Sam Khosravifard told Al Arabiya News.

Last year, Iranian President Hassan Rohani instructed the agriculture ministry to boost output in order to achieve self-sufficiency in five staple crops.

Iran’s agricultural sector reducing its water consumption would “hamper the target of self-sufficiency,” Bijan Khajehpour, a consultant at a Tehran-based group wrote.

Crop-growing alone “devours more than 90 percent of the water and the water efficiency is around 30 percent in this sector,” Khosravifard said, adding that a water shortage was inevitable.

“Moreover, the irrigation system hasn't been modernized in many areas and the cultivation pattern is not matched with ecological capabilities. Therefore, the current issue was not unpredictable.”

Highlighting the magnitude of the crisis, a 2013 study by the World Resources Institute ranked Iran as the world’s 24th most water-stressed country.

In the past 50 years, the growing population has used up almost 70 percent of Iran’s groundwater supply, the Washington Post reported, adding that the situation would only worsen because of “unsustainable development.”

In ancient times, to deal with the country’s “arid and semi-arid” environment, “Iranians created the aqueduct in order to overcome the challenges caused by water shortages,” Khosravifard said.

But more recently, even when the Iranian government attempted to tackle the issue by building dams, the water held by the massive structures evaporated, he added.

“Several research and studies carried out by academics have shown the pros and cons of the dam in Iran,” he told Al Arabiya News.

However, the Iranian government did not consider the results of the studies “because the dam construction not only provides lots of benefits for VIPs, but also they are tools to be presented as success and achievement of officials,” he said. — Al Arabiya English