Ahvaz East Wastewater Treatment Plant, with a daily capacity of 112,000 cubic meters, became operational in Khuzestan Province on Sunday.
“Completed at a cost of $32 million by the Energy Ministry, the facility will collect wastewater on the eastern flank of the important oil city, preventing it from entering the Karoun River,” Mohammad Reza Karami-Nejad, the head of Khuzestan Water and Wastewater Company, was quoted as saying by ISNA.
The recycled water is used for farming and industrial needs, he added.
Ahvaz is divided into eastern and western parts by the Karoun River that not only supplies the city with drinking water but also provides water for agriculture and industries.
“With the new plant now becoming operational, 7,000 hectares of farmlands in Ahvaz will be revived. It will also create 35,000 agro jobs,” he said.
The government is striving to come up with schemes to help curb water wastage and address water shortages that is causing serious concerns about the viability of food production and the future of the food self-reliance policy.
Given years of dwindling rainfall and rising consumption, authorities and independent experts have called for giving more attention to collecting and recycling wastewater.
According to Mohammad Javad Ashrafi, the head of the provincial branch of the Department of Environment, close to 80,000 cubic meters of industrial and municipal effluent flows into the Karoun River in Ahvaz.
“The new plant will reach its maximum capacity when wastewater infrastructure [sewage collection network] in the region is expanded,” he said.
“Annually, 100,000 cubic meters of wastewater are produced in the eastern flank of the key oil city, of which only 20% are recycled and the rest is discharged into the river and the stench has made life miserable for residents in and around the city.”
The oil-rich city is deprived of efficient infrastructure that can collect surface water, so as soon as precipitation surpasses 10 millimeters, rainwater penetrates underground wastewater network causing extensive damage.
