The project to transfer desalinated Persian Gulf water to Isfahan Province’s industries and mines will be completed in 30 months.
The executive operation of the project started in summer and is expected to be finalized by March 2025, the Energy Ministry’s news agency Paven reported.
When the project is over, 400 million cubic meters of water per year will be desalinated and delivered through 920 km of transmission lines to the central plateau.
Water transfer from the Persian Gulf in the south should help alleviate the water crisis in industrial regions that have limited access to underground water resources and suffer from low precipitation.
Climate change and global warming have resulted in rising temperatures across continents and summers in Iran compared to a quarter century ago.
Continuous drought and decline in precipitation has resulted in the drastic reduction of water in Zayandehrud Dam in Isfahan, which is the main source of water for drinking, agriculture and industrial sectors to famous tourist city of Isfahan.
Zayandehrud Dam 16% Full
The capacity of Zayandehrud Dam is 1.4 billion cubic meters, while currently it holds only 194 million cubic meters of water, which means it is only 16% full now, director of the dam said.
“The current volume of water in the dam shows a 22% decrease compared to the same period of last year and a 75% decrease compared to the long-term average,” Mojtaba Mousavi Naeini added.
The dam provides drinking water for more than 5 million people in the central province, for agriculture on the side of Zayandehrud river and to heavy industries in the central area of Isfahan.
The dam also supports a power station that annually produces 60 megawatt-hours of electricity. However, if the current level of water decreases further, the power plant will stop operating and water supply for different purposes will face difficulty.
In the not-too-distant past, Zayandehrud river had a regular and significant water flow, but is almost dry for more than eight months to the detriment of farmers who are largely dependent on the river for their livelihood.
Once the pride of the region, Zayandehrud originates in the mountains of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province and flows eastward toward Isfahan before ending up in the famous Gavkhouni Wetland.
As Zayandehroud is drying up, only 4% of the surface of Gavkhouni Wetland are covered by water. The wetland stretches over 47,000 hectares and its water rights include 176 million cubic meters of water from Zayandehrud annually. For all practical purposes, this right has been violated.
Gavkhouni, which is home to a variety of species of migratory birds, has been struggling with declining water levels over the past decade. Once a popular destination for migratory birds, typically at the beginning of winter, recent surveys show the numbers coming to the wetland have declined significantly.
The number of migratory birds in the wetland has decreased below 2,000 and the continuation of such conditions will threaten the survival of more birds.
In addition, the drying up of the wetland has worsened dust storms that thrash Isfahan and seven other provinces.
Disorganized urbanization, old and obsolete farming practices and the presence of water-intensive industries are adding pressure on the region’s rapidly dwindling water reserves.
Groundwater resources in the parched province are shrinking by a massive 3.6 billion cubic meters per annum. Of the total annual extraction, 3.3 bcm are used by 41,000 authorized wells and the rest from 21,000 illegal wells.
