Rural Poverty and Sustainability: The Case of Groundwater Depletion in Iran

摘要

The agricultural sector is the largest water user in the world and especially in Asia. Agriculture plays a basic role in Iran's national economy and it consumes about 93.5% of the total national water resource. Iran is a water scarce country and it has been confronted with drought disaster in many parts in recent years. Since the link between poverty and environmental degradation is rather complicated, it should be investigated based on the level, distribution and type of poverty, the type of environmental problem and the conditioning variables. Such a link has been seen when environmental degradation is related to rural households' livelihood, directly and when based on rural quality of life as the best index for rural poverty, in this research. The main objectives of this study were investigation of poverty and groundwater depletion relationship; take those regions confronted with groundwater depletion and compare water use productivity of farmers who live in such regions with those who live in regions with no groundwater depletion to improve the understanding of potential links. The research was conducted according to a theoretical framework. Research findings revealed that farmers who live in regions confronted with groundwater depletion have been entered in a dangerous competition with others to consume their groundwater resources, with such competition being the main reason for their water use productivity descending, severely. Poorer farmers were the loser of such competition. A conceptual model was derived from research findings. Several applicable recommendations have been presented at the end of the article.