Only 12% of the water used in the northern Mazandaran Province is provided from surface water resources and 88% come from groundwater resources, which include 740 wells and 373 springs, managing director of Mazandaran Water and Wastewater Company said.
“We need to build new dams so that we can make better use of our available surface water,” ILNA also quoted Behzad Bararzadeh as saying.
Located beside the Caspian Sea, Mazandaran receives water from numerous rivers, or mountain torrents flowing from the mountains to the sea, in addition to the annual rainfall.
Referring to the poor conditions of water supply to the rural areas of the province, the official said the budget required to supply drinking water to 128 villages has been allocated and with the completion of the water projects, 3,000 subscribers will get access to piped water.
“In the first step, we are supplying water to 18 villages from Lafour Dam. For this purpose, 120 kilometers of pipeline and distribution network have been built, and in the next 10 days, water will be transferred from the treatment plant to the villages in Galougah, Ramsar and Behshahr,” Bararzadeh added.
Water from Lafour Dam enters a major water treatment plant in Babol County, the first phase of which was launched last year with a capacity of 1,000 liters per second. Babolsar County has so far been linked to the treatment unit.
Lafour Dam is built on Lafour Lake in Savadkouh County, 45 km southeast of Babol. The dam is located near a beautiful forest and a village of the same name.
With a capacity to hold 150 million cubic meters of water, the dam also provides water required for 54,000 hectares of agricultural lands in Babol, Babolsar, Qaemshahr and Joueybar counties.
Over 70 kinds of agricultural produce are grown in Mazandaran, which meets 40% of domestic demand for rice and 50% of citrus fruits. The province is also the sole domestic supplier of kiwi.
Over-extraction from renewable and underground water resources in Mazandaran has become a serious challenge as close to 180 million cubic meters of water are extracted from aquifers via 2,500 unauthorized wells in the area.
There are about 142,000 authorized wells in the region, from which 1.3 million cubic meters of water are withdrawn annually.
Controlling the runoff in northern Mazandaran is essential and can have huge economic benefits.
Haraz Dam, which is under construction, has the capacity to control about 14% of the province's surface water and can positively affect the farming community.
The dam is designed to supply water to 110,000 hectares, mostly paddies, and drinking water to 14 cities and 500 villages. It will also help a 25-megawatt hydropower plant annually generate 170 gigawatt hours.
There are 230,000 hectares of paddy fields in the northern province, producing 1 million tons of rice per annum or 42% of the total consumption.
By controlling surface water in Mazandaran, 300,000 tons of rice can be added to the annual output.
