To help ensure stable supply of potable water in Bushehr Province, one the country’s most water-stressed regions, desalination plants have been set up along the coastal areas off the Persian Gulf and more are in the pipeline, said the director of planning and economic affairs at the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company.
Masoud Khashaee said "Three units with total capacity to process 75,000 cubic meters of saline water per day are up and running in the province and three more are being constructed that will be able to produce 50,000 cubic meters of drinking water on a daily basis,” IRNA reported.
He said plans are in place for attracting investment for three other plants with total capacity of 30,000 cubic meters per day in three cities, namely Kangan, Asalouyeh and Borazjan.
"If the private sector stays away from such ventures, the National Development Fund of Iran will provide the funds," he said, noting that 12 water and wastewater projects, worth $7 million, are underway in the province which will help supply running water to residents in 16 villages.
Khashaee said in the southwestern province the number of both urban and rural households that have access to potable water is 270,000 and 94,000 respectively.
“Bushehr’s water shortage is exacerbated by reliance on old and eroded pipelines, from which large volumes of water seeps out and never reaches the intended destination,” he rued.
According to the NWWEC official, years of drought have left policy-makers with little option but to meet a bigger share of freshwater need for the growing population from the sea.
At present, there are 73 desalination plants across the region with a capacity to process 420,000 cubic meters of water a day and 148 million cubic meters per annum.
Until 2021 Iran plans to reach daily desalination capacity of 600,000 cubic meters.
Desalination is any of several processes that remove the excess salt and other minerals from water in order to obtain fresh water.
Caption: Three units with total capacity to process 75,000 cubic meters of saline water per day are up and running in the province.
