The water transfer project from Nesa Dam in Kerman Province to rural areas in the cities of Bam and Baravat has progressed by 45%, the energy minister said.
“The initiative, aimed at supplying village dwellers in the region with quality piped water, is expected to come on stream by the yearend,” Ali Akbar Mehrabian was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
“Close to 60 km of pipeline have been laid and operations to build a pumping station and a water treatment facility is underway. About $20 million have been spent on the plan so far and $50 million are needed to complete the venture on time,” he said.
According to the official, the same pipeline will be used to transfer piped water to other rural districts in Narmashir, Rigan and Fahroj counties.
Although water transfer from the Persian Gulf to Sirjan in Kerman Province eased the water crisis in industries like Golgohar Mining and Industrial Complex, other parts of the region are still suffering from a chronic shortage.
“The formation of water markets to alleviate the paucity could be a new approach whereby buyers and sellers trade water through short- and long-term leases and permanent sale of water rights that can be within catchments,” Mohammad Reza Pour-Ebrahimi, the chairman of Majlis Economic Commission, said.
Several development projects in the province are on hold, as water tension in the dry area has aggravated over the last decade and many households have started to evacuate villages, he added.
He noted that temporary measures like water diversion schemes cannot be useful unless the whole province can be supplied with water, which is highly improbable.
A 300-km pipeline with seven pumping stations annually transfers 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water from the Bandar Abbas desalination plant in southern Hormozgan Province to Sirjan.
Pour-Ebrahimi noted that as long as the pipeline is not extended to other counties, industrialists and farmers cannot be hopeful of developing their businesses and migration from rural areas to large cities will accelerate.
Water Trading
A water market will allow farmers to buy and sell water, depending on their needs. Water trading has become a vital business tool for farmers in many countries such as Spain, Australia and the US, he said.
“Water markets encourage a more efficient water use. Well-structured markets will augment water conservation efforts that so far have made little progress.
The new approach can help make possible the allocation of more water to economic sectors that are highly productive.
Pour-Ebrahimi said the first water market was piloted in Khorasan Razavi Province in 2020 and since it has produced the desired results, the system can be expanded across the country.
Water is a means of livelihood for a relatively large number of people and implementing a stringent monitoring regime with the help of law enforcement will not help.
Water markets constitute a regional-friendly measure that can help address scarcity and for the same reason, academicians and policymakers favor such instruments.
“Such systems will likely draw greater attention, as water deficits become more frequent and intense,” he said.
Regions where consumers and those in charge admit that water is a precious economic good can make better use of market instruments to flexibly reduce overexploitation of resources, modify consumption patterns and increase water efficiency.
Each year, a whopping 6 billion cubic meters of water are withdrawn from the drought-stricken province’s aquifers, of which 95%, 2% and 3% are respectively used by agro, industrial and household sectors.
The plains around Kerman no longer have the capacity for deeper wells to reach groundwater and water transfer is apparently the only viable option.
Water demand in Kerman is 3,000 liters per second while the maximum production capacity is 1,850 liters/second.
The province’s drinking water comes from 365 wells, three springs, eight aqueducts and two dams. The desert province, as is the case in most other regions in Iran, has been grappling with drought for years and piling pressure on urban authorities.
