Groundwater allocation and the question of justice in Iran's rural communities

This article examines Iran's groundwater allocation systems in a transitional context. Over centuries, local governance regimes regulated groundwater as a common-pool resource, which was conducive to distributive justice. However, after Iran's 1979 revolution, ideological policies treated groundwater as an open-access resource associated with equity. This paradigm shift from distributive justice to equity led to the overexploitation of groundwater. The government's perception of equity only gave free rein to those who could afford to drill tube-wells and appropriate common groundwater resources. This article concludes that groundwater justice is unattainable without local governance regimes that can reinstate groundwater as a common-pool resource, rather than as an open-access resource. • Iran's local governance regimes regulated groundwater as common-pool resource. • Allocating groundwater as a common-pool resource facilitated distributive justice. • Iran's revolution led to an environmental policy that viewed groundwater as open-access resource. • The paradigm shift from distributive justice to equity led to over-exploitation of groundwater. • Groundwater justice is unattainable without local governance regimes.