Investigation of water supply systems in semiarid regions of Iran: A case study of western part of Tehran Province

At present, drought problem has been resulted social and economical effects in several arid and semiarid regions of Iran. Especially, on environmental and agricultural aspects. Tehran Province involves three river basins and seven regions according to the classification of water management study units employed in the Master plan. In this regard, longterm records (27 years) of precipitation and runoff that concern to more than four hydro meteorological stations, which located in different sites have been analyzed. Water production in the study area despite that Tehran's water supply is currently groundwater (40%) and surface water (60%) conveyed from Karaj, Latian and Lar dams. The area recently experienced its worst water crisis due to excessive water consumption by Tehranis and that will be further aggravated not only by the impacts of uncontrolled immigration to the capital city of Tehran along with rapid population growth but also by uncontrolled pumping up of groundwater. Appropriate measure are thus required to exploit new surface water resources, as well as the effective use of available water recourses including a legal framework and institutional strengthening to limiting ground water use.