The construction of Kamandan Dam in Azna County, Lorestan Province, has registered 90% progress and its reservoir will be filled with water in winter, managing director of the provincial Regional Water Company said.
“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 4,000 hectares of farmland on Kamand Plain,” Dariush Hassan-Nejad was also quoted as saying by ISNA.
Calling it an important water project in the western province, he added that it will be launched before the end of the current Iranian year (March 2022).
The construction of Kamandan Dam started in 2005, but due to budget overruns and lack of funding, the project remained incomplete after 16 years.
“Six other dams are in different stages of construction in Lorestan. Upon completion, they will supply water to several counties for farming, industrial and drinking purposes, apart from helping control flooding,” the official said.
In the past few years, torrential rains and flash floods took a heavy toll on people’s lives and properties in the province, mainly due to delays in dam construction blamed by officials on funding constraints.
Hassan-Nejad noted that there are five dams in the western province, namely Maruk Dam in Doroud County with a capacity of 106 million cubic meters, Ivashan Dam in Khorramabad City with a 52-mcm capacity and Haleh Dam in Kouhdasht County with a 3.5-mcm capacity, as well as Khanabad and Koznar dams in Aligoudarz County that can hold 14 mcm and 1 mcm of water respectively.
The ongoing projects include Ali Mahmoud Dam in Aligoudarz County with over 20% progress, Taj Amir Dam in Delfan County making over 50% progress, Absardeh and Shahid Boroujerdi dams in Boroujerd County with over 40% and 10% progress respectively.
Recently, the construction of Ziba Mohammad and Makhmalkouh dams in Khorramabad has been started.
Lorestan experiences abundant rainfall but huge volumes of water are discharged due to a lack of dams to control the water flow.
Nevertheless, the issue of constructing dams to collect water has been disputed by water experts who insist that despite building hundreds of dams in the past half century in different parts of the country, water shortages have not been alleviated.
