A SURVEY ON SOCIAL ISSUES IN REPLACING EFFLUENT WITH AGRICULTURAL WATER RIGHTS (CASE STUDY : REPLACING MASHAD EFLUENT WITH WATER RIGHTS FROM KARDEH RIVER)

摘要

Over use of groundwater in Mashhad plain has resulted in a sharp decline of the waterrntable. Because of draughts and increase of water consumption due to growing populationrnpressure in Mashhad, one solution proposed by authorities was to compensate waterrnscarcity by substituting the city effluent for a part of the water of Kardeh River that is nowrnbeing used in agriculture in Mashhad. The project was approved and it is under executionrnnow with cooperation from the Government, Executing agency and consulting companies.rnOlang and Parkandabad waste water treatment plants were constructed and transferrnfacilities to upload the effluents to the farmers’ fields were made. There were many socialrnproblems in executing this project. So a survey on social problems associated with thernreplacing a part of the fresh river water by the treated waste water as well as the contractrnissues with farmers, was carried out by the Amayesh & Tose-e-Shargh Consulting Co.rnSome economic and social problems as well as some acceptable solutions in this projectrnare discussed in this paper. Field study and dialog with farmers were the main method ofrninvestigation. The analyzed views show that the majority of people accept the change of.