The executive operation of the project to supply water to 7,138 villages across Iran started on Monday on the order of President Ebrahim Raisi via videoconference.
Costing $760 million, the project will provide drinking water to more than 3.3 million people in rural areas within 30 months, the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven reported.
Seeking to eliminate deprivation in underprivileged regions, the project includes installation of more than 1,000 km of transmission lines, improvement and development of rural distribution network extending over 11,000 km, water supply with a capacity of 6,216 liters per second, construction of 1,126 storage tanks with a capacity of 400,000 cubic meters and 449 pumping stations.
Also on Monday, Raisi officially inaugurated water supply projects to 480 villages and electricity supply to 211 villages.
According to the president, promotion of executive services to the villagers and nomads, especially in deprived areas, is one of the main goals of the government.
“Providing sustainable water resources and supplying clean and standard water to people in rural and nomadic areas are on the agenda of the Energy Ministry,” he said.
In the third quarter of the current Iranian year (started March 2021), drinking water was supplied to 549 villages with a population of 355,000 people, according to data provided by the Energy Ministry.
Currently, over 83% of Iran’s rural population have access to piped water while the entire urban population is linked to the water supply network.
The injudicious use and waste of groundwater have emerged as a major problem in Iran's struggle against the water crisis that has gotten worse over the past half century, as precipitation declines and consumption rises.
Iran's annual water consumption exceeds 100 billion cubic meters, which is not acceptable by both regional and international norms, meaning people should appreciate the value of the precious resource.
Solar Power for Nomads
In the same ceremony on Monday, the president officially launched the operation of portable solar power generators, which have been delivered to 10,000 nomadic households, Paven reported.
Portable solar panels are easy to install and can be carried anywhere as they do not need to be linked to the national grid. Usually, they come with a kit that includes additional tools like a stand, cable, storage case, solar charge controller, inverter and a battery.
Mobile solar panels generate enough power to help families meet their needs like charging emergency lights and cellphones, and use the TV in deserts and plains.
Nomads generally are on the move in search of pasture and water for cattle, set up tents and nurture livestock.
Technology has created the conditions to help tribes with facilities to ease their daily, often difficult, tasks without interfering in their way of life.
However, the rapid expansion of urban areas has negatively impacted nomadic populations that mostly straddle South Khorasan, Fars, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari and Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad provinces.
Data show nomads made up almost one-fourth of Iran's population a century ago, which figure is currently below 2% of the total population of 80 million.
Iran has 1.2 million nomads spread across 59% of the country's land, breeding 22 million light livestock accounting for 28% of the total.
Promoting renewable sources of energy by supplying nomads with mobile photovoltaic panels is done by the government to ensure their access to uninterrupted electricity during their journeys.
The expansion of clean and renewable energy consumption among nomads is expected to reduce the destructive effects of using fossil fuels.
Rural Power Supply
President Raisi also on Monday launched the executive operation of the plan to develop the electricity network to an additional 4,500 villages.
Over $900 million have been invested to expand power grids to small towns and villages since 2015.
Funding went largely for installing towers, building substations for transmission and distribution, expanding high voltage power transmission lines and aerial transmission cables.
More than 5,000 small rural communities home to 4.5 million households are now connected to the grid. Around 96% of the rural population have access to stable power supply.
The length of the national power distribution network stretches over 800,000 kilometers, of which 250,000 km are for supplying electricity to underdeveloped rural communities.
