ENERGY GENERATION IN THE KAROON BASIN AND THE QUALITY OF WATER IN ITS ESTUARY

The water level in the southern parts of the river Karoon, the most important source of water supply and hydroelectric production in the south west of Iran, is determined by the tidal variations. As a part of a developing program of the region, for supplying water to several agroindustrial complexes and production of hydroelectric energy several dams have been constructed or are under construction as an uninterrupted cascade system. The presence of these reservoirs has resulted in more intense evaporation of water due to the high temperature in the region. This would add up to the withdrawal of water for agriculture uses. As a result, discharge of fresh water into the estuary of the river has reduced and salt concentration of water in the estuary has increased. Due to the decrease of water quality at the upstream parts of the estuary, the urban areas are increasingly faced with problem of water supply, in particular, for domestic uses. In this paper, the effects of construction of dams on the Karoon River from the above viewpoints are described and the problems are discussed.