Qanat restoration
operations underway in Sistan Baluchestan: Official

The head of the water
affairs department of Iran’s Agriculture Ministry in Sistan-Baluchestan
announced that some 1,600 kilometers of qanats across the southeastern province
have undergone repairs in the past years.

With funds allocated from
the national budget and other funding sources, 1,600 kilometers of the
province’s qanats have been rehabilitated in the past years, Hossein-Ali
Ramroodi said.

He added that 96 qanats
underwent repairs in the province in the past Iranian calendar year.

Qanats are underground
aqueducts first used by Persians c. 1000 BC. These structures were used to
transfer water from highland aquifers to the surface at lower levels by
gravity. Historians believe the qanats of Iran were built on a scale that
rivaled the great aqueducts of the Roman Empire.

Noting that more funds
need to be allocated to recondition qanats in the dry province, Ramroodi said
the restoration projects would help increase the extraction of underground
water by 10 to 15 percent. 

Throughout the arid regions
of Iran, agricultural and permanent settlements are supported by the ancient
qanat system of tapping alluvial aquifers at the heads of valleys and
conducting the water along underground tunnels by gravity, often over many
kilometers.

South Khorasan, Yazd,
Kerman, Isfahan and Markazi provinces are home to the 11 qanats inscribed on
UNESCO's World Heritage List. Reportedly, some of them include rest areas for
workers, water reservoirs and watermills.

The traditional communal
management system still in place allows equitable and sustainable water sharing
and distribution.

The qanats provide
exceptional testimony to cultural traditions and civilizations in desert areas
with an arid climate.