Despite regular warnings from the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran (Abfa), high water consumption continues unabated across provinces.
Following outbreak of the coronavirus in Iran in (announced on Feb 22), the need to take safety measures (20-second hand washing each time several times a day) has increased water consumption remarkably and officials including Mohammadreza Ahmadnasab, managing director of Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Company (Abfa subsidiary) has warned that if big cities do not cut consumption, they will face dire consequences (water rationing) in the next hot season, ISNA reported.
Abfa has appealed to residents to avoid waste and unnecessary use and to postpone spring cleaning. Nonetheless, statistics show most households have so far largely turned a deaf ear to the warning, he added.
According to Abfa, water use has risen by 40%, 35% and 20% in Kerman, Kermanshah, and Golestan provinces respectively, largely due to the infectious disease.
Referring to Tehran Province, Ahmadnasab noted that since March 1 consumption reached 3.2 million cubic meters per day, up 15% compared to the same period last year.
Regarding other provinces, the news agency said water consumption has increased by 30% (140 million liters per day) in Khorasan Razavi Province with a population of 3.5 million.
“To avoid supply cuts people should not use water for nonessential needs or else paucity will be inevitable,” Abfa warned.
In related news, Mohsen Hosseini, head of Gilan Province Water Company said daily water consumption (in March) has risen from 4,200 liters per second to 5,250 liters per second -- up 20% compared to January.
According to the Mazandaran Province Rural Water and Wastewater Company, consumption has shot up by 40% in the past couple of days as people wash their hands several times to stay immune from the fast spreading illness.
Although Mazandaran’s dams are almost full, if the current trend of consumption continues, farmers will face serious problems in summer, Mansour Rezaie Kalantari, head of maintenance department of the provincial water company said.
According to the official, close to 220,000 hectares of land is used for rice farming in the northern province and the water company is responsible for supplying paddy fields with water by releasing dam water.
To meet the province’s need, in addition to surface water (1.5 billion cubic meters), around 1.3 bcm is extracted from underground resources. The northern Gilan and Mazandaran provinces account for 71% of Iran’s rice production.
Iran has confirmed 14,000 cases of infection with the new coronavirus, with 700 reported dead by Sunday noon.
