Water consumption in Semnan Province has increased this year due to the spread of the coronavirus and rise in temperature compared to two years ago before the pandemic, managing director of the provincial water and wastewater company said.
“The subscribers of the company used about 28 million cubic meters of piped water in the first five months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Aug. 22) similar to the last year, which is higher than the consumption in the same period of two years ago when the figure was less than 24 mcm,” IRNA also quoted Mohammad Taheri as saying.
Water consumption has shot up by 40% in different regions of Iran since the beginning of the pandemic in the country (February 2020) as people wash their hands several times a day and clean possessions and environment regularly as a preventive measure against the contagious virus.
Taheri noted that in addition to observing health safety measures, the rise in temperature before the start of summer also increased consumption while the country has had low rainfall since the beginning of the current water year (September 2020).
“However, potable water supply to urban and rural areas has not been disrupted so far,” he said.
“By renovating the water network and pumping stations as well as drilling new wells, drinking water has been supplied to the people of the province without a problem.”
The official explained that only in 30 villages, water has been supplied by tankers due to the significant decline in precipitation, which reduced the level of water in springs and aqueducts.
All the urban regions and 88% of the rural areas are connected to the water network in the province.
Semnan Water and Wastewater Company has over 320,000 subscribers in urban and rural regions. About 1.250 billion cubic meters of water are produced in the province per year.
Groundwater Resources Depleting
Although the province has not had trouble providing drinking water for people in the household and industrial sectors, the extraction of water from groundwater resources mostly for farming purposes has endangered the water resources of the province.
The level of groundwater resources in Semnan on average drops annually by 60 centimeters.
Located to the east of Tehran Province, Semnan is among the regions with the least amount of rainfall and over 95% of the province are desert areas, which show the dire water condition.
More than 43,000 farmers earn their living from tilling the land that stretches over 198,000 hectares. They annually produce 1.5 million tons of farm products, namely grapes, pistachio, apricot, pomegranate, olives, garlic and pepper.
Considering huge withdrawals from groundwater resources, precipitation being much lower than the national average and the high rate of water evaporation, provincial officials seek new water resources to avoid a serious problem in future.
One solution, though highly controversial, is the ambitious plan to divert water from the Caspian Sea to the Central Plateau.
The government insists that diverting water from the Caspian Sea in the north to Semnan is now the best option to fight drought in the central plateau. The overall plan is to siphon 200 million cubic meters of seawater a year to the desert region.
Nevertheless, water and environmental experts have voiced their strong opposition to the water diversion plan. Their argument is that the transfer of desalinated water from the Caspian Sea will increase the sea’s salinity and destroy the marine ecosystems.
The other contentious issue is the path through which the pipeline would reach Semnan. A 200-km pipeline has been considered, which will have to pass across the Alborz Mountains and pass through the renowned Hyrcanian Forest, requiring the felling of trees in the ecologically-rich but vulnerable woodlands.
