VZCZCXRO3865
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDIR RUEHKUK RUEHTRO
DE RUEHIT #0183/01 1471420
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 271420Z MAY 09
FM AMCONSUL ISTANBUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8978
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ISTANBUL 000183 
 
SIPDIS 
 
LONDON FOR GAYLE; BERLIN FOR PAETZOLD; BAKU FOR MCCRENSKY; 
ASHGABAT FOR TANGBORN; BAGHDAD FOR BUZBEE AND FLINCHBAUGH; 
DUBAI FOR IRPO 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/27/2019 
TAGS: ECON EAGR PREL PGOV PINS UNDP IR TU
SUBJECT: IRANIAN ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERTS ENCOURAGE US HELP TO 
ADDRESS IRAN'S WATER PROBLEMS 
 
REF: (A) ISTANBUL 133 (B) ANKARA 687 (C) ANKARA 752 
 
Classified By: Acting Principal Officer Sandra Oudkirk; Reason 1.5 (d). 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary: Several Iranian environmental experts 
recently decried to us the lack of attention and resources 
the GOI devotes to water-related issues in Iran.  They urged 
the USG to reach out to Iran indirectly, through UNDP or 
academic channels, to offer a "cooperative partnership" 
(i.e., USG help) in several specific areas, including 
irrigation technology, desalination, and managing 
trans-boundary water resources.  One expert pointed out that 
Supreme Leader Khamenei's March 21 speech responding to 
President Obama's outreach specifically highlighted the poor 
state of Iran's water conservation and irrigation capacities, 
a message reportedly reinforced by Iran earlier this month at 
the UN Commission on Sustainable Development.  These contacts 
believe a USG offer of cooperation in those areas, made after 
Iran's elections, would be met with a cautiously pragmatic 
response from the GOI and with grateful enthusiasm from 
Iran's scientific and environmental communities.  End 
Summary. 
 
¶2.  (C) In the past few weeks, ConGen Istanbul's NEA Iran 
Watcher has solicited views from several Iranian 
environmental and water experts on environmental developments 
in Iran.  Two experts who work for development-related NGOs 
attended the March 16-22, 2009 World Water forum in Istanbul 
(ref A) and have stayed in contact with us, while a the third 
expert (the head of the Watershed and Rangeland Management 
Department at Gorgan University in Golestan province, a 
leading Iranian university for agricultural and environmental 
studies, please strictly protect) was in Istanbul recently to 
receive a visa for a two-year research sabbatical in the U.S. 
starting in September.  All shared similar cautionary views 
on the poor state of the environment in Iran, bemoaning the 
worsening trends of soil erosion and desertification, 
flooding, and water wastage throughout the country.  They 
argued that the GOI was not doing enough to address these 
problems, in part because Iran's fragmented bureaucracy has 
led to inadequate enforcement of environmental laws, and in 
part because to address the problems effectively Iran would 
need to seek foreign help, which the regime is not currently 
willing or prepared to directly request. 
¶3.  (C) These experts were most concerned about the following 
environmental challenges: 
-- Rising salinity and wetland degradation:  One contact 
characterized Iran's wetlands as being under serious threat. 
Iran receives less than 250 millimeters of rainfall annually, 
a third of the world average.  90% of Iran's area is arid or 
semi-arid.  Only 35% of Iran's land is arable, with wetlands 
concentrated in six main areas, primarily the lowlands along 
the Caspian Sea, the Sistan basin on the Afghan border, 
central Fars province, and the Orumiyeh basin in northwest 
Iran.  This expert believes one consequences of Iran's water 
shortage and misuse is the increasing level of salinity in 
wetland areas.  Many important indigenous plant species 
cannot survive the higher salt content in the groundwater, 
disrupting the ecological balance.  He received a small GOI 
grant to try to develop more salt-tolerant strains of such 
plants species but says it was not enough funding.  He 
recently applied to UNDP's Iran office to request enough 
funding to make the project viable.  He argued that the GOI 
is not doing enough to research or develop more advanced, 
cost-effective desalination techniques. 
-- Irrigation:  One contact explained that irrigated 
agriculture consumes over 90% of Iran's renewable water 
resources.  Because most of Iran's rivers are seasonal (i.e., 
flowing only when precipitation is heavy), up to 60% of the 
water for irrigation is drawn from water tables and 
underground reservoirs, usually at an ecologically 
unsustainable rate.  Iran's approach to irrigation is 
inefficient, plagued by inattention to operations and 
maintenance, heavy GOI subsidies on delivered water, unclear 
lines of authority within the GOI, and a resulting GOI 
unwillingness to set a goal of requiring much more efficient 
irrigation methods nationally.  He suggested that a more 
concerted GOI campaign to encourage use of methods like 
pressurized irrigation, drip irrigation, and qanat-based 
(ancient/traditional underground canals) irrigation systems 
would improve efficiency.  Low irrigation efficiency, by 
contrast, is leading to water logging and over-salinization 
in the irrigated areas.  Acknowledging that agriculture is a 
key economic sector, he said the GOI only recently recognized 
it must do more to increase the efficiency of irrigation 
methods and reduce the share of groundwater consumed in 
irrigation, but is still struggling to set realistic goals, 
and to assign clear bureaucratic responsibility and 
 
ISTANBUL 00000183  002 OF 003 
 
 
sufficient resources to achieve those goals. 
-- Trans-boundary water-sharing:  An expert in Iran's 
trans-boundary water resources (i.e., rivers that flow from 
neighboring countries, such as the Helmand from Afghanistan 
and the Aras from Turkey) told us that as Iran's water 
shortage increases, resulting from increasingly frequent and 
prolonged drought cycles, Iran will become more dependent on 
trans-boundary water-sharing.  Iran needs more effective 
regional cooperation to manage these important water sources, 
he argued.  Tran-boundary water disagreements, especially in 
this part of the world, can easily lead to serious conflict, 
especially as regional water scarcity increases.  Iranian and 
Afghan forces exchanged gunfire over disputes related to the 
Helmand river in the 1990s, and in 1999 the Taliban shut off 
the Helmand's flow to Iran, completely drying up several 
vital eastern Iranian lakes.  But if managed well, it offers 
an important subject for regional cooperation.  He pointed to 
the "doosti" (friendship) dam operated on the trans-boundary 
river between Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan as a rare 
example of an effective regional water partnership.  He 
encouraged the U.S. to help facilitate a more comprehensive 
trans-boundary or regional water-sharing dialogue, to include 
Turkey, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, as the 
USG (through USAID) already does in the Caucuses and Central 
Asia.  Such a dialogue could lead both to a more efficient 
and equitable use of shared water resources, and to lower 
tensions and raised confidence in the region. 
GOI views: signaling a need for help? 
¶4.  (C) One expert pointed to Iranian Supreme Leader 
Khamenei's late March Mashad speech as an indicator of GOI 
recognition that it faces significant water conservation 
problems, though Khamenei framed the challenge more as one of 
 simply "working harder and wasting less."  A close reading 
of those remarks, our contact said, reveals a sense of 
urgency on the regime's part, and an clear listing of areas 
where the regime needs help, including:  rural development 
("It is not right that a village suffers just because it is 
in an isolated part of the country"); drought's impact on 
wheat production ("wheat production decreased in the country 
because of last year's drought, and now we must import 
wheat"), water wastage ("Nearly 22% of water is wasted in our 
homes.  Water is produced with difficulty, requiring dams and 
huge investments....The country's water pipelines are under 
strain...We must preserve our dams, improve our water supply 
lines, and train to economize on irrigation.  Those who use 
less water should receive state aid.")  While that portion of 
the speech was intended for a domestic audience, our contact 
said it shows not only how seriously the regime has recently 
begun to view its water problem, but it also shows several 
tangible areas where a USG offer of engagement through 
"partnership" assistance is most needed. 
¶5.  (C) The GOI's concerns were reinforced at the UN's 
Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) meetings in New 
York, May 4-15, 2009.  A "very capable and pragmatic" Iranian 
diplomat, Javad Amin-Mansour, served as the vice-chair for 
the annual session, according to our contact.  Amin-Mansour 
reportedly underscored in remarks to the CSD that Iran is 
facing a potential environmental crisis brought on by 
desertification, land degradation, deteriorating water 
quality, and misuse of water leading to water scarcity. 
Though he was representing the CSD, our contact told us that 
Amin-Mansour lobbied actively behind the scenes at that 
meeting for significantly more international assistance to 
Iran, via the UN system, on these issues.  An internet search 
of remarks that Amin-Mansour made as Iran's representative to 
the 2008 CSD meetings further underscores the growing sense 
of GOI concern about these worsening environmental trends, 
and the need to look for both international and local 
solutions.  In those May 2008 remarks, Amin-Mansour called on 
the international community to better fund the UN's Global 
Environmental Fund (GEF) to help poor countries deal with 
these challenges.  He urged that national governments 
(including Iran) do more to invest in rural economies and 
empower local communities by, inter alia, making them 
"stakeholders" in better managing their local resources.  He 
also urged that national governments (including Iran) do more 
to empower "grass-roots environmental organizations, civil 
societies, and academia" to help find creative solutions to 
these problems. 
How to engage Iran on these issues:  Carefully and indirectly 
¶6.  (C) All three contacts suggested that any offer of USG 
help in these areas should wait until after the June 12 
elections, and must be framed carefully.  First, Given the 
GOI's pride in its scientific achievements, including in 
agriculture and the environment, the U.S. should offer 
"partnership" not assistance, agreeing to work jointly as 
equals on any agreed projects.  Second, given the GOI's 
suspicions about USG intentions and hidden agendas, the USG 
 
ISTANBUL 00000183  003 OF 003 
 
 
should not make the offer directly to the GOI.  Instead, the 
USG should consider making such partnership offers through 
the UN system -- most usefully through UNDP, which has an 
established field presence in Iran and is respected for its 
humanitarian, developmental, non-political work (including in 
local watershed management).  Such an offer of partnership 
could start with a scientific and technological exchange 
between leading USG and GOI environmental scientists, under 
UNDP auspices, to discuss latest developments in desalination 
or irrigation technologies.  Another alternative, proposed by 
an academic contact, would be to make an initial offer of 
USG-funded partnership via academic channels, for example 
from California State University or Texas A&M, both of which 
have Centers for Irrigation Technology, to leading Iranian 
universities like Sharif, Tehran, and Gorgan University.  Any 
such offer must be done openly, making clear that USG funding 
is being used.  Finally, an offer to facilitate a regional 
trans-boundary water "confidence-building" dialogue could be 
conveyed in any number of official ways, including by a third 
party like Turkey, under the auspices of whatever regional 
economic or political forum would be most appropriate (e.g., 
one that includes all relevant participants as members). 
Comments 
¶7.  (C) As environmental experts from Iran's NGO and academic 
communities, it is no surprise that these contacts would 
actively encourage USG partnership with Iran on water issues. 
 Indeed, to some degree it is professionally self-serving. 
But it also reflects a non-ideological pragmatism that we 
believe is a common trait among Iran's environmental and 
water experts.  Experts from this field tend to be 
results-oriented, and to recognize that these cross-cutting 
crises require international coordination (and a willingness 
to accept foreign help) sooner rather than later.  These 
contacts believe firmly that a USG offer of cooperation in 
these areas, made after Iran's elections, would be met with a 
cautiously pragmatic response from the GOI and with grateful 
enthusiasm from Iran's scientific and environmental 
communities. 
¶8.  (C) The one recommendation that merits a strong 
cautionary note is the proposal for a multilateral 
confidence-building approach to trans-boundary water sources. 
 As Ref B and C note, we believe it is highly unlikely that 
Turkey would ever agree to have water resources discussed and 
allocated under any multinational or multilateral system 
involving non-riparian states, but rather strongly prefers to 
address water issues on a watershed basis, with all countries 
sharing a watershed jointly managing both water supply and 
demand.  Thus far, including with Iran, that concept has been 
a tough sell. 
¶9.  (C) The idea of offering US assistance to Iran in the 
areas of agriculture and environment is not new.  The P5-1's 
June 2006 incentives offer to Iran included "support for 
agricultural development in Iran, including possible access 
to United States and European agricultural products, 
technology, and farm equipment."  Possible partnership with 
or assistance to Iran on issues like irrigation and 
desalination could helpfully reinforce the appeal of the 
P5-1's agricultural assistance offer, as Iran's leaders, and 
its agricultural sector stakeholders, come to realize that 
there is a direct causal link between better water 
management, more efficient irrigation, and more productive 
agriculture. 
¶10.  (SBU) We will stay in contact with these contacts and 
will report any further environmental developments or 
suggestions that they share with us. 
OUDKIRK