Kamandan Dam in Azna County, Lorestan Province, will be launched by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2022.
With a water storage capacity of 28 million cubic meters, Kamandan Dam will provide Azna and Aligoudarz counties with drinking water, in addition to supplying water to 5,140 hectares of farmland on Kamand Plain, ISNA reported.
The construction of Kamandan Dam was started in 2005, but due to budget overruns and lack of funding, the project remained incomplete after 16 years.
It has registered 80% progress and according to officials in the western province, it is expected to be inaugurated in 10 months.
“Six other dams are in different stages of construction in Lorestan,” Dariush Hassan-Nejad, managing director of the provincial Regional Water Company, said.
“The dams will supply water to several counties for farming, industrial and drinking purposes. They will also help control flooding.”
In the past few years, torrential rains and flash floods have inflicted heavy losses on lives and property in the province, mainly due to delays in dam construction blamed by officials on funding constraints.
“There are five dams in the western province, including Maruk Dam in Doroud County with a capacity of 106 million cubic meters, Ivashan Dam in Khorramabad City with a 52-mcm capacity, Haleh Dam in Kouhdasht County with a 3.5-mcm capacity, and Khanabad and Koznar dams in Aligoudarz County that can hold 14 mcm and 1 mcm of water respectively,” the official said.
Referring to ongoing projects, Hassan-Nejad said, “Ali Mahmoud Dam in Aligoudarz County has made 21% progress, Taj Amir Dam in Delfan County is half complete, Absardeh and Shahid Boroujerdi dams in Boroujerd County have logged 41% and 10% progress, respectively.
The construction of Ziba Mohammad and Makhmalkouh dams in Khorramabad has begun recently.
Lorestan is among the regions with abundant rainfall. However, huge volumes of water are discharged due to lack of dams to control the water flow, which claim was disputed by water experts who insist that despite the construction of hundreds of dams in the past half century in different parts of the country, water shortages have not been addressed.
