Construction of a water treatment plant in Minab County, Hormozgan Province, will be completed by spring, the acting governor of Minab said.
“When the facility is operational we will have no problem in supplying water for drinking and farming in the southern county,” Mehr News Agency quoted Majid Salahshour as saying.
With a billion dollars in investment so far the project has made 70% physical progress and is expected to come online in the first quarter of the next Persian calendar year (beginning March 21, 2021), he added.
A wastewater treatment plant is also under construction, which will cover 73,000 people in the city.
“The unit has three phases, each with a capacity to treat 7,620 cubic meters of wastewater per day. The first phase is expected to come online by the end of the current year (March 20, 2021) as it has registered 80% progress,” Salahshour said.
When all three phases come on stream, the plant will treat 22,860 cubic meters of sewage a day for farming.
Collecting sewage from across the city requires over 330 km of wastewater network and three pumping stations, the acting governor said. “Almost 37 km needed for the first phase is ready.”
Minab, in the eastern part of Hormozgan, has always been an agricultural hub, thanks to its mild climate.
However, climate change, rising temperature and drought have led to the drying up of surface and ground water resources undermining livelihoods in the southern regions.
Emerging pit craters is a recent problem in the area putting more stress on the already dry and water stressed region. Problems multiplied after water transfer projects were launched to supply Bandar Abbas, the provincial capital.
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Minab Dam, a hydroelectric structure located on Minab River, is the main source of water to Bandar Abbas, off the coast of the Persian Gulf
Injudicious water usage, decrease in precipitation, inefficient water management, old water-intensive farming methods and failure to build desalination plants have exacerbated the water crisis.
With 1,700 hectares of mango orchards, Minab is considered a hub for tropical fruits where the lush green orchards bestow a special serenity to the city with hot weather.
Tomato is among the main agricultural products of the county. Most of the crop is sold to larger cities like Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan plus Iraq, Russia and the Persian Gulf littoral states.
Other agricultural products include bell peppers, eggplant, cucumber, onions and watermelons. Wastewater is seen as a valuable resource for irrigation and industrial use.
According to the International Water Association, almost 80% of all wastewater is discharged into the world's waterways leading to health, environmental and climate-related hazards.
Estimates suggest global wastewater treatment capacity is 70% of the total wastewater produced in high-income countries and 8% in low-income countries.
Iran’s water supply network stretches over 460,000 kilometers and expanding the grid to rural areas is a government priority.
The wastewater network is about 66,000 kilometers which carries sewage to 240 treatment facilities to be recycled and reused in industries and for framing.
Processing wastewater has become fundamental to the growth and development of industries and agriculture. One cubic meter of polluted water contaminates 40 cubic meters of clean water, which explains why collecting wastewater has become so critical to help protect the environment.
