Principle of Public Participation to Preserve Water Resources: A Study of Laws and Regulations

Protest uprising organized by tractor users in November 2016 on Eastern roadsides of Esfahan Province (IRAN) and their clash with police has been always a headline in newspapers. This phenomenon has been referred to as in only one of the numerous decisions affecting lifes of people radically. Why such decisions have been adopted? and why farmers have been faced so many crisis is the main questions posed by public. This Article seeks to study the nature and role of "public participation" in preserving water sources, as well as capacity of internal law and administrative system of Islamic Republic of Iran for promoting public participation in regulating and adoption of administrative decisions and their implementation for protection of environment in general and especially preserving rare and vital water resources. It seems that failure to respect the principle of public participation as one of the most important elements of governance is one of the important obstacles to realizing sustainable development. Participation of beneficiaries of a given decision in adapting public decisions, which directly affect their lives, through negotiation of people and union representatives, public survey, research and seeking non-governmental organizations' opinions not only can prevent adoption of arbitrary decisions and guarantees transparency of administrative decisions, it also promotes the culture of organizational transparency and contributes to the promotion of public culture and guarantee active participation of citizens in enforcement of decisions which protects rights of future generations and will guarantee sustainable development.