Anthropology of Water in Varzaneh, Iran

Abstract

Water quality/quantity crises may make water a hazard source. This study investigates the coded meaning that water crisis causes, how water insecurity impacts mental and physical health, and ways of dealing with water scarcity. However, this cultural meaning contradicts community-level governmental decisions and the unequal water distribution of Iran’s Zayanderud River. Consequently, there is a water crisis in the small city of Varzaneh, and it induces undesired individual-level feelings, such as local concerns that cancer is associated with the deterioration of the Gavkhouni Wetland into which the Zayanderud drains. At the household level, water shortage problems are causing population emigration and/or adoption of different jobs and cropping styles. On a larger scale, public protests are responses to the deteriorating natural environment. Generally, the region’s hierarchical and sectarian social organizing forms contradict. In Varzaneh, the sectarian form views environmental hazards as a higher priority. As a hierarchical form, the government emphasizes foreign enemies and defines the water problems in Varzaneh as not being a top priority. The outcome is social tension over water supply at both small and large scales.