Operations are underway to build a desalination facility in the city of Hendijan in Khuzestan Province, the head of the provincial Water and Wastewater Company said.
“The new plant, estimated to cost $50 million, is expected to supply 70,000 people in rural districts with piped water,” Mohammad Reza Karaminejad was quoted as saying by ISNA.
With a capacity of 25,000 cubic meters per day, the facility will be completed in 24 months by domestic engineers, he added.
Hendijan is a 3,000-year-old city in southeast Khuzestan, sharing 95 kilometers of coastline with the Persian Gulf in the south.
“The facility will help meet water demand not only in Hendijan but also in Zohreh, Mahshahr, Imam Khomeini Port and Chamran,” he said.
The fledgling domestic desalination industry should meet the need for potable water in the Persian Gulf littoral provinces, he added.
Iran supplies 420,000 cubic meters of freshwater per day, or 153 million cubic meters per annum through desalination.
Persian Gulf Arab states’ demand for desalinated water has increased by 9-11% in recent years, according to Frost & Sullivan, a business consulting firm involved in market research and analysis.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain meet a large part of their need for drinking water from the strategic Persian Gulf waterway.
Two decades of drought have had dire consequences on Iran’s water resources.
Viable Option
To tackle the worsening water crisis, desalination is becoming a viable option in most countries to produce potable water from the sea.
In coastal regions where saltwater is in abundance, large and semi-large desalination plants are preferable.
Water desalination plants provide significant volumes of potable water in the northern and southern regions of Iran.
Tapping into the sea to produce clean water is on the Energy Ministry’s agenda, as it is considered a viable source for ensuring a sustainable supply rather than depleting the rapidly dwindling underground tables, most of which are on the verge of drying up.
Despite the fact that 76 plants are functioning in different parts of Iran, desalinated water comprises a meager 0.1% of the total annual water consumption while it is 70% in some neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia.
Iran's annual water consumption is about 100 billion cubic meters, of which less than 100 million cubic meters are produced by desalination plants in coastal regions, namely Khuzestan, Hormozgan and Bushehr.
Approximately 142 million cubic meters of seawater are desalinated daily throughout the world. However, Iran's share is as little as 420,000 cubic meters per day.
According to the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran, dependence on rainwater and river runoff in drought-stricken regions can no longer meet mounting demand. That is why unconventional water resources, such as reclaimed and desalinated water, have emerged as effective solutions for the sustainable and long-term management of drinking water in parched regions like Khuzestan and Bushehr.
Unconventional water resources are generated as a byproduct of specialized processes such as desalination, or require suitable pre-use treatment before use for irrigation.
The significance of water reuse, as a solution to Iran’s worsening water problems, has increased in recent years.
Many regions, namely Isfahan, Hormozgan and Semnan, have already started to reuse water either with the help of wastewater facilities, or large-scale desalination.
