ABSTRACT
In 1961, construction of the Dez Dam and Pilot Irrigation Project began in Khuzestan Province of Iran, with the hope that the project would once again make the area into a fertile agricultural centre, as it had been centuries before. Irrigation systems had existed in this area 5000 years ago. More recently, beginning in the 16th century, the combined effects of unstable governments, water-logging and salinization of the soil, as well as depletion of soil nutrients, reduced the productivity of the area. By the middle of the 20th century, it was a desolate wasteland, largely taken over by silt from river floods, and by erosion (Rosenfield, 1975).
