Determining Agricultural Water Poverty Index in Kermanshah Province: The Case of Mahidasht Basin,

Abstract

As an assessment method of the water resources, Water Poverty Index (WPI) has become an available tool in wa ter resources management. In particular, Agricultural Water Poverty Index (AWPI) is an assessment tool for agricultural water in rural areas. During the past decades, Mahidasht Basin in Kermanshah Province has been declared by water policy makers as “forbi dden” basin in terms of water exploitation. Therefore, effective water resource management in the basin is deemed important. AWPI provides an appropriate tool in managing water resources more effectively. AWPI is an extension of Water Poverty Index (WPI) w ith five components including resources, access, use, capacity, and environment. This study sought to investigate the Agricultural Water Poverty Index in Mahidasht Basin in Kermanshah Province. Results revealed that Mahidasht Basin is faced with severe Agr icultural Water Poverty (AWP= 49.06). Moreover, although farmers had limited water resources (R= 27.4) but these limited resources were highly accessible (A= 74.9). The result of this study has practical implications for water policy makers in Kermanshah P rovince. For example, agricultural policy makers can use the result of this study to devise better policies to alleviate agricultural water poverty in Mahidasht Basin where it is faced with water crisis. Keywords : Agricultural Water Poverty Index, Normali zation, Indicators, Water crisi