Abadan Desalination Plant to Become Operational in Feb.

A desalination plant is expected to be launched in Abadan, Khuzestan Province, in the near future to help address the pressing water problems of the southwestern oil city, said the director of Abadan Water and Wastewater Company. 
“The unit, with a capacity of 3,000 cubic meters of potable water per day, will become operational by February,” the Energy Ministry’s news portal also quoted Mohammad Reza Karami-Nejad as saying.
“The facility will help meet water demand in Chavibdeh, a city in Shalahi rural district in Abadan County,” he said.
“The fledgling domestic desalination industry should meet the need for potable water in the Persian Gulf littoral provinces.”
Iran supplies 420,000 cubic meters of freshwater per day, or 153 million cubic meters per annum through desalination. 
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.  
Two decades of drought has had dire consequences on Iran’s water resources.
To tackle the worsening water crisis, desalination is becoming a viable option in most countries to produce water from the sea. In the coastal regions where saltwater is in abundance, large and semi-large desalination plants are preferable.
Water desalination plants provide significant volumes of potable water in the northern and southern regions of Iran.
Tapping into the sea to produce clean water is on the Energy Ministry’s agenda as it is seen as a viable source for ensuring a sustainable supply rather than depleting the rapidly dwindling underground tables, most of which are on the verge of drying up.