Supply of desalinated water to Hormozgan Province will increase by 30% or 40,000 cubic meters per day to 170,000 cm/d in March.
"Desalination plants in the southern region, which produce 130,000 cubic meters of potable water a day, meet 26% of local demand. Wells and dams account for the majority 74%," managing director of Hormozgan Regional Water Company Houshang Mollaee was quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry news website.
Bandar Abbas Desalination Plant that became operational last month produces 200,000 cubic meters of drinking water a day all of which is piped to Kerman and Yazd via a 300-km pipeline and seven pumping stations.
“Come March 40,000 cubic meters of the total output (200,000 cm/d) will be piped to small towns and rural areas in the province,” the official said.
As the water crisis worsens in the desert region, talks are underway with the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran (Abfa) to increase the province’s share of desalinated water.
Mollaee reiterated that like other provinces, underground resources are drying up rapidly in Hormozgan. With options running out “tapping unconventional resources, namely saline water, has become a compulsion.”
Several dry villages have been abandoned as people in growing numbers move to urban areas in search of jobs and livelihood.
Expanding Bandar Abbas desalination infrastructure can help curb migration and contribute to sustainable rural development in the arid regions, he said, echoing the concerns of prominent experts that the water crisis has rendered many dry regions uninhabitable.
Hormozgan has a population of 1.6 million and 1.1 million are covered by the provincial water company. There are 17 desalination units in the coastal province that produce 130,000 cubic meters of water a day.
Twenty desalination units are in varying stages of construction. It is projected that by 2022 use of underground water resources will be cut to 40% and share of purified water rise to 60%.
Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian says the fledgling domestic desalination industry can and should meet the need for potable water in the Persian Gulf littoral provinces.
Iran (with desalination plants) produces 420,000 cubic meters of freshwater per day, or 153 million cubic meters per annum.
Persian Gulf Arab states’ demand for desalinated water has increased by 9-11% in recent years, according to Frost & Sullivan, a business consulting firm involved in market research and analysis.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain meet a large part of their need for drinking water from the strategic Persian Gulf waterway.
