Mr Gerold Bödeker, FAO Representative to the Islamic Republic of Iran led a visit to Qazvin Province to review the ongoing projects and activities on water scarcity and water productivity in the Qazvin plain.

Accompanied by group of experts from the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Agriculture Jahad, the FAO technical team led by Mr Bödeker visited different parts of the irrigation network in the region, including Ziyaran diversion dam, located on the northern part of the Qazvin plain; A dam with 200,000 m3 capacity which manages the inflow of water originate from Taleghan dam upstream to irrigate downstream farmlands.

The delegation also visited two critical points of the irrigation channels where the main channel and L2 channels are connected to L1 and L3 sub-channels which distribute the inflow of water from Ziyaran dam to local farmlands.

Concluding a day-long visit to Qazvin Province, a technical meeting encompassing FAO’s team and experts from local offices of the Ministries of Energy and Agriculture Jahad, Department of Environment and Water Usage Association was convened at the provincial office of Ministry of Agriculture Jahad. Participants discussed the overall situation of Qazvin plain in terms of precipitation, agricultural zoning, and the programmes implemented in the region. Following their discussion, the attendees were briefed by the recent national delegation to Spain to participate in a training workshop organized by the University of Cordoba on Evapotranspiration Measurement Methods.