Projects to supply potable water to 100 villages in four provinces were inaugurated on Tuesday, the Energy Ministry news portal Paven reported.
Completed at a cost of $4.4 million, the projects will provide safe water to about 63,000 rural people, the Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said.
“Of the 100 villages, 75 are in Kurdistan, 15 in Zanjan, eight in Alborz and two in Hamedan,” he said.
Access to sustainable drinking water, reverse migration to rural areas and improving public health are among the goals of the projects.
“Now 12,437 villages across the country are linked to the water network, which means 8.4 million people in rural areas have access to drinking water,” Ardakanian said, adding that the number will reach 9.3 million by mid-summer.
The project to Kurdish areas included laying 287 km of pipelines, storage tanks each with a capacity of 10,000 cubic meters and cost $3.3 million. It will supply 313 liters of water per second to 10,480 households or 43,825 people.
In Zanjan a 41-km pipeline was laid to link 7,598 villagers in the western province. Water supply to 8 villages in Alborz will benefit 9,700 people. The 2-km pipeline will transfer 49 liters of water per second.
Hamedan’s 5-km pipeline will meet the needs of 1,432 people. So far almost 78% of the rural population in Hamedan has access to safe drinking water. The projects in Zanjan, Alborz and Hamedan together cost $1.1 million.
According to the energy minister, 199 power and water projects have come on stream at a cost of 2.2 billion.
