The executive operations to build a desalination facility in the Persian Gulf port city of Bandar Dayyer, Bushehr Province, started on Saturday, the managing director of Bushehr Water and Wastewater Company said.
“The new plant, estimated to cost $10 million, is expected to supply 12,000 people in rural districts with piped water,” Abolhassan Aali was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven.
With a capacity of 4,000 cubic meters per day, the facility will be completed in 12 months by the domestic engineering and energy giant, MAPNA Group, he added.
Aali said the initiative entails building a desalination unit, extending 20 kilometers of power transmission cables and laying a 10-km water pipeline to transfer seawater to the facility.
The plant’s processing capacity can rise up to four times in the future, he added.
According to the official, four other plants, namely Bushehr, Borazjan, Vahdatiyeh and Siraf, with a total capacity of 60,000 cubic meters per day in different stages of construction, are expected to become operational by March 2023.
“Desalination plants with a total capacity of 120,000 cubic meters per day are also under construction across the province. The completion of these projects is expected to triple the current daily processing capacity of 40,000 cubic meters,” he said.
“The ongoing initiatives undertaken by the private sector are estimated to cost $160 million. Of the total capacity [120,000 cubic meters/day], 60,000 cubic meters will become operational in November, 40,000 cubic meters by December and the rest will come on stream gradually in 2023.”
Drawing a parallel between the cost of extracting water from wells and processing seawater in desalination facilities, Aali noted that the former costs around 10 cents per cubic meters, but the latter is 60 cents costlier.
“Currently, 10% of the drinking water required in Bushehr Province are supplied by desalination plants, which is predicted to reach 45% in 2023,” he said.
Water Demand
The household sector’s daily water demand in the region is about 400,000 cubic meters, of which wells and desalination plants account for 39,000 cubic meters and 40,000 cubic meters respectively and the rest is transferred to the area from neighboring provinces.
According to Jaber Mozaffarizadeh, the head of Water Quality Department of Bushehr Water and Wastewater Company, an effective way to tackle water paucity in the area is by collecting and treating unconventional water resources, including wastewater and grey water.
Referring to the region’s enormous water deficit, he said 50% of the shortage (15 mcm) can be eased by tapping into wastewater resources.
“The commonly used conventional water resources such as rainwater or river runoff will not be adequate to meet the growing demand in parched areas. Increasing water scarcity and the alarming lack of rainfall will further undermine access to water resources in dry areas, namely in Bushehr,” he added.
Limits on conventional water resources for future needs call for a paradigm shift to unconventional resources.
Unconventional water resources are generated as a byproduct of specialized processes such as desalination, or suitable pre-use treatment before use for irrigation.
Unlike conventional sources, wastewater is sustainable, the volume of which has increased in Bushehr over the last decade.
“Close to $100 million worth of effluents are produced in the province, which can be used in industrial and agro sectors. But this is wasted largely due to a lack of wastewater treatment infrastructure,” he said.
According to the Energy Ministry data, Bushehr water consumption in agriculture and industrial sectors exceeds 850 mcm a year. Water for different sectors comes from surface, groundwater and desalination sources.
“Low rainfall and excessive withdrawal from wells in Bushehr Province have almost wiped out groundwater resources in the southern region,” Abdollatif Abbasinejad, deputy for conservation affairs at the provincial water company, said.
Known as an industrial region, Bushehr is home to major refineries and power plants. The giant South Pars Gas Field and Iran’s sole nuclear power plant are located in the Asalouyeh County.
The water needed for these facilities is supplied from the Persian Gulf and their water consumption is not included in the data provided by the regional water company.
