Four water and wastewater projects worth $495 million were inaugurated by President Hassan Rouhani via video conference on Tuesday in Tehran, Gilan and Qazvin provinces.
The Tehran projects include the Firouz Bahram Wastewater Treatment Plant in Eslamshahr County in the southwest and Pardis Wastewater Treatment Plant 20-km east of the capital. The facilities will increase annual effluent processing capacity by 294 million cubic meters, IRNA reported.
Before the new facilities became operational, water reclamation capacity in the sprawling capital was 250 mcm per year that is now expected to reach 544 mcm.
Referring to Firouz Bahram plant that cost $450 million, the state-run news agency said it includes a 1,700-km sewage collection network, 1,200-km sewer tunnel and an effluent treatment plant for 285 million cubic meters of wastewater a year.
Built over 60 hectares, the plant was built by the Tehran Regional Water Company and will treat wastewater produced by 3.1 million people in 12 districts in the metropolis that has expanded in all four directions in the past half century. With 12 million people, the capital has 22 municipal districts.
Treated effluent from this facility will be for irrigating urban green areas, farming and industries in the southern areas.
The second project (Pardis plant built over 11 hectares) cost $10 million and will annually treat 9 million cubic meters of sewage produced by 250,000 people.
Pardis, a satellite town 20-km east of Tehran, was built in 2010 but due to the lack of wastewater collection sewage flowed into Jajroud River that enters Mamlou Dam, one of the five dams that supplies drinking water to Tehran’s 13 million people.
Both plants use activated sludge (AS) method to process sewage. AS consists of three main components namely an aeration tank, a settling tank and a return activated sludge.
Gilan Water Plant
To improve water quality and curb land subsidence in Gilan Province, the second phase of a water treatment plant became operational in the northern region.
“Costing $10 million and completed in six years, the facility will treat 500,000 cubic meters of water a day and help improve water quality supplied to an estimated two million residents in small towns namely Khomam, Sangar, Kiashahr, Siakal, Roudboneh and Shalman plus 200 rural areas on the outskirts of the tourist province,” Deputy Energy Minister Qassem Taqizadeh Khamesi was quoted at the weekend as saying.
He said 6,000 kilometers of high-pressure water pipelines have so far been laid, 45 deep wells have been dug and 60,000 water storage tanks have been built in Shaft, Amlash, Fouman, Lahijan, Masal, Astara and Langeroud counties.
Due to its moderate climate, Gilan is rich in agriculture and animal husbandry. Over half of its farmlands are under rice cultivation and the region is a major rice production center.
Other well-known Gilan products include tea, citrus fruits, hazelnut, peanut, potatoes, pumpkins, olives, silk cocoon and caviar. Annually 2.5 million tons of crops are produced in the province.
Nahab Dam
Nahab Dam in Qazvin Province was launched Tuesday along with other water projects. It cost $25 million and holds 120 million cubic meters of water for farming. Built on Khorroud River, it will provide water for 37,000 hectares of farmlands and help improve the region's agricultural water resources.
The dam is located north of Qazvin in Takestan County. Work started in 2007 but was delayed due to funding constraints.
Due to shortage of surface water, farmers in this province extracted 90 million cubic meters of water from groundwater sources and the dam is expected to reduce illegal water withdrawal.
The government has started sealing unauthorized wells to conserve rapidly depleting resources and discourage the harmful practice of digging and using illegal wells.
