The second phase of Hamedan Wastewater Treatment Plant, including a sludge treatment unit, has become operational, the managing director of Hamedan Province Water and Wastewater Company said.
“The facility can now treat 110,000 cubic meters of wastewater per day and the refined sewage goes for farming and Shahid Mofatteh Thermal Power Plant,” the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven quoted Hadi Hosseini Bidar as saying.
Completed at an estimated cost of $25 million, the plant uses activated sludge method to process sewage and its third phase is expected to become operational by the yearend.
When the third phase is completed, the plant’s daily treatment capacity will reach 220,000 cubic meters.
According to the official, close to 95% of the population in Hamedan City are covered by the wastewater network and only a few suburban areas need to be linked to the network.
“The recycled wastewater for farming has prevented the creation of sinkholes in the plains and desertification, as many farmers in the past used to consume groundwater from illegal deep wells,” he said.
“Recently, 25 wells have been sealed around Hamedan City and we have replaced groundwater extraction with surface water.”
There are eight wastewater treatment plants in Hamedan Province, covering about 75% of the total 1.75 million population.
Regarding precipitation, Hosseini said the amount of rainfall in the province has dropped by 35% in the first three months of the current fiscal year compared to the same period of last year.
Hamedan is a historic city and Iran’s fifth biggest grape producer after Fars, Qazvin, Khorasan Razavi and West Azarbaijan provinces.
