The first phase of a wastewater treatment plant in Shadegan County in Khuzestan Province was inaugurated by Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi on Monday.
The $10 million facility, the construction of which was launched in 2017, has the capacity to treat 20,000 cubic meters of effluent per day, Mehr News Agency reported.
“It will help preserve the city’s underground water resources and optimize wastewater for agriculture as reclaimed wastewater is normally clean for farming needs.”
The plan was implemented in the form of an engineering, procurement, construction and financing (EPCF) contract by the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran.
Referring to the second phase, the official noted that the plant’s development plan will start soon and upon its completion, the facility’s processing capacity will reach 26,000 cubic meters per day.
“The development of wastewater infrastructure can help ensure that the company’s need for long-term water supplies is addressed properly,” he added.
Water-intensive industries are almost wiping out the limited water resources in most provinces, including Khuzestan, Qom, Yazd and Isfahan, and the need to recycle and reuse wastewater has become a do-or-die issue.
“One effective approach is to stop tapping the dwindling underground water tables and build as many wastewater treatment plants as possible to recycle not only industrial but also household sewage," he said.
According to experts like the late Parviz Kardovani, eminent eremologist and faculty member of Tehran University, Iran is fast approaching a full-fledged water crisis and if sustainable solutions are not found, “water-intensive industries and the agriculture sector will become a thing of the past sooner rather than later”.
The approach of “develop industries, come what may” will inflict substantial losses, he had warned.
“These industries should have been built in the coastal regions where there is sufficient access to seawater. Now that it is impossible to relocate, they must develop wastewater infrastructure,” Kardovani said.
The no-nonsense conservationist had for years called for revising industrial policies, namely water-intensive industries like steel manufacturing, but the plea has fallen on deaf ears.
