Iran’s Arid Climate and MAPNA's Social Responsibility
How Can A Knowledge-Based Company Deal with Environmental Threats?
Desertification caused by severe droughts and famines in the late 1960s and early 1970s was one of the problems of developing countries at the international level and forced climatologists and environmental activists in 1994 to finally choose a day as the world day to combat desertification and drought.
June 17 was chosen in the world calendar to promote public awareness about desertification, but unfortunately, the situation has worsened since the adoption of this day; the situation has exacerbated to a point when in 2022, climate scientists are talking about the last chances to save the planet.
The current situation clearly shows that the initial goals of choosing a World Day to Combat Desertification have not been achieved and we are still far from promoting public awareness about the state of our planet.
The expansion of deserts in Asia, Africa, Australia, and even South America, along with the phenomenon of climate change and global warming, has created a situation that the scientists of the 1990s probably did not imagine even in their worst predictions.
What is desertification?
Desertification is a phenomenon that occurs as a result of human’s wrong actions in nature. As one of the causes of soil degradation in arid, semi-arid, and sub-humid areas, desertification is a result of a variety of factors such as climate change and human activities.
Among these factors that cause desertification, one can mention wrongful exploitation of agricultural lands, overgrazing, and excessive exploitation of aquifers that leads to increasing salinity of water and that of soil.
Iran has 1.2 percent of the world’s dry lands, 2.4 percent of uncovered deserts, and 3.08 percent of the world’s desert areas. 61 percent of the country’s area is located in arid and ultra-arid climates, which is 3.1 times the global percentage (19.6%). Although 32.5 million hectares of the country’s land are marked as deserts, 43.7 million hectares are classified as desert ecosystems. 20 million hectares of the desert ecosystem are affected by wind erosion. Of this amount, 6.4 million hectares are in critical areas, which are scattered in 182 regions, 97 cities, and 18 provinces of the country.
MAPNA's responsibility for Iran’s climate in future
The priority of combating desertification is to prevent the elimination of the remaining lands. Meanwhile, remediation plans should be considered for the degraded lands as well.
Due to its defined social responsibility, MAPNA Group has entered into action in two areas: seawater desalination and wastewater recycling. The company has the required technical capacity in this field; so it can be claimed that if the necessary platform is created, MAPNA has the ability to change the situation of desert expansion and drought in Iran to a large extent.
Fighting desertification in Iran officially started in 1966 when an office was established for desert affairs in the Forests, Range and Watershed Management Organization. Then, another office was created under the title of Petroleum Mulch Office in the same organization in order to control wind erosion in the country.
After more than half a century, we must accept that combating drought and depletion of underground water for agricultural uses has had irreparable consequences on Iranian’s lives. The cities’ shut down due to the dust storms is just a small part of its effects.
The scenes that we saw this spring in the sky of cities in Iran, once were visible only in desert cities. Now, the risk of desertification has reached the borders of Tehran, therefore it is time to make a serious decision to slow down this process.
In fact, the only way to attract investors and get funding in this industry is to stop selling cheap water to consumers. In this case, the industry will be able to use the technical power of MAPNA Group to supply the water needed for industry, drinking, and agriculture, instead of using underground water sources and rivers.
Iran has 2,700 km of water border in the Caspian Sea, Sea of Oman, and the Persian Gulf. This exceptional position could be a turning point in this process.
Water supply on Qeshm Island
Qeshm Power and Water Cogeneration project, which is the first in the country capable of producing drinking water and generating electricity simultaneously, has been able to produce four thermal desalination units each with a capacity of 4500 cubic meters of fresh water per day.
The supply of fresh water in the southern coastal strip not only prevents using the remaining underground water resources but also avoids its climatic consequences in the near future.
However, we must not forget that the expansion of deserts will be reversed only if there are drastic changes in local and international behaviors. These changes will lead us to food security for the growing global population and sustainable land use. Thus, fighting desertification is just a part of a much bigger goal: the sustainable development of countries affected by drought and desert expansion.
MAPNA Group considers the production of potable water and wastewater recycling in the coastal strip as a part of this sustainable development.
In the last project launched by MAPNA Group, 70% of people on Qeshm Island gained access to potable water. Such projects have the ability to supply potable water to cities on the edge of the desert, and also recycle wastewater for agricultural purposes. Furthermore, groundwater and the surplus water from recycling can be used in forestry projects in order to combat desertification.
