The second phase of the wastewater treatment plant in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan Province, will help raise the inflow of treated wastewater to the troubled Urmia Lake by 150%, director of the provincial Water and Wastewater Company said.
“The new phase will increase the current water flow to the lake to four cubic meters per second or 125 million cubic meters a year,” Ali Abbasi was also quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
The second phase of the development project, which is 97% complete and set to come on stream in January 2022, is expected to increase the current capacity [130 cubic meters per day] to 207,000 CMD, a large part of which will be diverted to the lake, he added.
Instead of the conventional activated sludge process, the plant is equipped with step-feed aeration system in which primary effluent enters the aeration tank at several points along the length of the tank, rather than at the beginning or head of the tank.
Abbasi said seven wastewater processing units are at varying stages of construction in the province and will significantly raise the effluent processing capacity after completion.
Speaking during a visit to the plant, the official said Tabriz is a big city (population 1.6 million) and produces a huge amount of wastewater, the treatment of which could feed the lake despite its long distance from the lake.
Close to 70% of Tabriz's urban areas are connected to the wastewater system.
Developing wastewater facilities are in line with the guidelines of Urmia Lake Restoration Project that has tasked towns and cities in the vicinity of Lake Urmia’s catchment area to treat their wastewater and direct it toward the lake.
An estimated 60 million cubic meters of reclaimed wastewater enter Urmia Lake every year, part of which is from treatment plants in Naqadeh, Urmia, Mahabad, Miandoab, Salmas and Boukan in the northwestern province.
Located between the provinces of East and West Azarbaijan, Urmia Lake is a closed water body fed through 21 permanent and 39 seasonal rivers.
It started to desiccate 10 years ago due to a variety of factors, including the construction of a 15-km causeway to shorten travel time between Urmia and Tabriz cities and construction of several dams that have choked off water supply from the mountains on both sides of the lake.
