Water governance in Iran faces significant challenges, including institutional overlaps, fragmentation of responsibilities, and structural inefficiencies in integrated water resource management. The Seventh Five-Year Development Plan of the Islamic Republic of Iran provides a suitable platform for addressing structural gaps in water governance, promoting decentralization and advancing digitalization. However, despite the prominence of sustainable development principles in national policy documents, their practical implementation remains limited. This shortfall is attributed to the absence of causal mechanisms for translating policy solutions into actionable strategies, inadequate horizontal and vertical coordination within governance structures, and resistance to change within the entrenched bureaucratic system. Enterprise Architecture (EA) offers a structured framework for aligning organizational components including institutional structures, processes, information and communication technologies to achieve strategic objectives. The Zachman Framework, in particular, offers a systematic methodology for analyzing multi-dimensional governance challenges, breaking down complexity into manageable elements. This study examines the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing the Seventh Development Plan’s water governance objectives, analyzing Clause A of Article 38, Article 105 and Clauses B and C of Article 107 through the lens of EA. The main contribution of the study is a conceptual mapping of these legal provisions within the layers of the Zachman Framework to promote institutional alignment and scalable implementation in accordance with the legal mandates of the Seventh Development Plan.