Annual water withdrawal from dwindling underground resources in drought-stricken Semnan Province has exceeded 150 million cubic meters and it is continuing unabated, managing director of the Regional Water and Wastewater Company said.
“Of the total extraction, close to 90% are used for unsustainable farming practices. Households and industries account for the remaining 10%,” Mohammad Taheri was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Semnan is among the regions with one of the lowest rates of rainfall and over 95% of the province span the central desert, which shows its dire water condition, he added.
Taheri noted that more than 60% of the urban population live in the cities of Semnan and Shahroud, and as a result we see the highest water consumption in the two cities.
Semnan is located to the east of Tehran Province. More than 43,000 farmers earn their living from tilling the land that stretches over 198,000 hectares. They produce 1.5 million tons of farm products per annum, namely grapes, pistachio, apricot, pomegranate, olives, garlic and pepper.
“It is, indeed, regrettable that huge withdrawals from groundwater resources are continuing unabated. The volume of precipitation is much lower than the national average and the rate of water evaporation is high. Water is being supplied from external sources,” the official said.
According to Taheri, if new water resources are not defined for the province, it will face serious problems in the future.
One solution, though highly controversial, is the ambitious plan to divert water from the Caspian Sea to the Central Plateau, albeit to the chagrin of prominent environmentalists, conservationists and climate change activists.
The government, however, insists that diverting water from the Caspian Sea in the north to Semnan Province is now the best option to combat drought in the central plateau, which will siphon 200 million cubic meters of seawater a year to the desert region.
Other strategies, namely rainwater harvesting, judicious water use (especially in the agro sector), promoting advanced irrigation techniques and recycling wastewater, have also been implemented. However, residents still suffer from water shortages and almost 500 million cubic meters of water are wasted annually in the industrial and farming sectors.
Rising Consumption
Taheri noted that water consumption in the province has increased this year due to the spread of coronavirus and rise in temperature compared to two years ago before the pandemic.
“Subscribers of the company used about 28 million cubic meters of piped water in the first five months of the current Iranian year [March 21-Aug. 22] similar to last year, which is higher than the consumption in the same period of two years ago when the figure was less than 24 mcm,” he added.
Water consumption has shot up by 40% in different parts of Iran since the beginning of the pandemic in the country (February 2020), as people wash their hands several times a day and clean possessions and environment regularly as a preventive measure against the contagious virus.
Taheri stressed that in addition to observing health safety measures, the rise in temperature before the start of summer also increased consumption while the country has had low rainfall since the beginning of the current water year (September 2020).
“However, potable water supply to urban and rural areas has not been disrupted so far,” he said.
“By renovating the water network and pumping stations as well as drilling new wells, drinking water has been supplied to the people of the province without a problem.”
Semnan Water and Wastewater Company has over 320,000 subscribers in urban and rural regions. About 1.250 billion cubic meters of water are supplied in the province per year.
