Water production in Tehran reached 17 million cubic meters per day between February 21 and March 1.
According to ILNA, the figure shows a 3.5% rise (500,000 cubic meters/day) compared to same time in the previous year.
Water production is the process of pumping water from dams to treatment facilities, purifying it and transferring the clean water to homes, schools and businesses.
Groundwater and dams account for 70% of water supply in the province and the balance (30%) comes from underground resources.
Five dams, namely Amirkabir and Taleqan (west Tehran) plus Latian, Lar and Mamlou (in the east), with the capacity to hold 1.93 billion cubic meters of water, meet a part of Tehran’s need.
Average daily water consumption in the sprawling capital exceeded 3.5 mcm in the period, which is the same as the peak consumption in summertime.
Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Company (Abfa) said in a statement that water use in Tehran has increased 15% since February 20, largely due to infectious coronavirus.
“To avoid supply cuts people should reduce waste and unnecessary use, or else paucity will become a real problem,” Abfa said.
Following the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran (Feb 21), water consumption jumped because of regular washing of hands and cleaning possessions and environment.
Furthermore, the Persian New Year (Nowruz) is 10 days away and as per tradition, spring cleaning is at its peak.
Abfa has urged households not to use water for nonessential needs.
Tehran accounts for less than 1.1% of the country’s land area, but accounts for 20% of the population and 45% of the industrial base. This translates into high and rising water consumption.
In normal conditions, average water consumption in Tehran is 2.5 times more than the global average. The contagious disease, that so far has affected 100 countries, has made a bad situation worse.
Regarding other provinces, the news agency noted that water consumption has risen by 40%, 35%, 20% and 7% in Kerman, Kermanshah, Golestan and Khorasan Razavi respectively.
Production of each cubic meter of drinking water costs the government 25,000 rials (17 cents) while it is sold for 6,000 rials (4 cents).
Mohammadreza Bakhtiari, managing director of Abfa, says this largesse in the form of massive subsidies is simply not sustainable and has to come to an end sooner rather than later.
Iran’s water deficit is about 130 billion cubic meters and if this is not addressed the consequences will be irreparable.
Close to $9 million was spent to deal with the menace of illegal wells in 2019, Abdollah Fazeli Farsani, deputy head of the Underground Water Resources Protection Unit of Iran Water Resource Management said.
“Around 10,600 unauthorized wells were sealed, preventing the extraction of 3.4 bcm of water.” He added that approximately 58,000 unauthorized wells have been sealed since 2015.
An estimated $600 million was due to be allocated to projects to revive the depleting underground water resources but “a very small amount of this was given to the Energy Ministry.”
