ABSTRACT
Artificial recharge schemes in the Shahrood District, north east Iran, take the form of detention ponds and infiltration basins at more than 10 sites. The main problem limiting the effectiveness of these schemes is “water shortage”-the very problem they were created to solve. Some of these detention basins, due to severe droughts over the past few years, received little or no inflow. Other ponds, perhaps inappropriately sited, have been filled up with sediments faster than expected due to flash-flooding with high weather-ing/and/clay production rates. Additional problems for these recharge schemes include high evaporation potential, the quality of the recharging water and inflow sediments, the dangers to natural wild life and other environmental concerns and the logistics of maintenance. Despite these, the advantages of these recharge schemes are a) an increase in the groundwater resources; b) the prevention of saline water intrusion from surrounding vast Kavirs; c) the control of flash floods from the intense-short duration rainfall characteristics of the arid zone and d) an increase in vegetation cover, migratory birds and other wild life, plus recreational facilities and the recent innovative use of pond sediments in agriculture.
