A project to transfer water from the Oman Sea in southern Iran to tackle the water crisis in parched Sistan-Baluchestan, South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi provinces has registered a work-in-progress rate of 25%, the plan’s manager said.
“Started in 2020, the venture is estimated to cost $4 billion and will become operational in 2025,” Ali Abdollahi was quoted as saying by ISNA.
Environmental permits to build desalination plants, water treatment facilities and water storage tanks have been obtained and the project is making headway as planned. Desalinated seawater will be pumped from Chabahar to Zahedan where a 1,530-km pipeline is being laid to South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi provinces.
The pipes are being produced in domestic factories and private companies were selected as contractors through tenders.
When the project becomes fully operational, an estimated 700 million cubic meters of freshwater will be supplied annually to the three provinces for drinking and industrial use.
“In South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi provinces, the water will be supplied to industrial units, whereas in Sistan-Baluchestan the water will be piped into taps,” Abdollahi said.
A study conducted by the World Resources Institute has ranked Iran as the world's 24th most water-stressed nation, putting it at extremely high risk of future water scarcity.
The three provinces have long been suffering from acute water shortages. Environmentalists and experts say water transfer from the Sea of Oman through pipelines to the parched and water-stressed regions is the last option to tackle the water crisis.
The implementation of the water project from the coasts of Chabahar to the three eastern provinces of Iran is considered a big leap in the country's water industry, as it will promote prosperity, job creation and sustainable water supply.
Similar Project
A similar project has already been launched for transferring the Persian Gulf water to central Iran for industrial use.
A water transfer line will link the Persian Gulf to Hormozgan, Kerman and Yazd provinces for supplying water to their industrial sectors.
The first phase of the plan was launched in 2020 and supplied water to Golgohar Mining and Industrial Complex in Sirjan, Kerman. It included a desalination unit (in Bandar Abbas), 10 pumping stations, 40 water storage tanks, 14 power substations and a 150-kilovolt power transmission line from Hormozgan to Kerman and Yazd.
The second phase of the project to divert water from the Persian Gulf to Kerman and Yazd provinces has registered over 70% progress. It included an 850-km pipeline to annually transfer 180 million cubic meters of desalinated water from the Bandar Abbas Desalination Plant in southern Hormozgan Province to Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine in Rafsanjan County, Kerman Province, and the Chadormalu Mining and Industrial Company in Ardakan County, Yazd Province.
With the completion of the new phase, other industries in Yazd Province will also be provided with water from the Persian Gulf and reduce their dependence on groundwater, the level of which has declined in recent years.
Last Resort
Despite the benefits of water transfer plans, experts including Qassem Taqizadeh Khamesi, former deputy for water and wastewater affairs at the Energy Ministry, insist that such initiative should not be the last resort as they are pricey, long-term and bound to lead to environmental problems like exacerbating soil erosion and throwing marine ecosystems out of balance.
Instead, spreading public awareness, promoting prudent consumption, treating and recycling wastewater, collecting and reusing groundwater, updating traditional irrigation and farming practices should be given higher priority, he said.
Inter-basin transfer to far-flung regions can and will compromise the above-mentioned approaches tried and tested globally to fight water shortage.
In fact, Iran is the only country in the world trying to tackle water paucity by building a pipeline stretching over a long distance.
“This, indeed, is unprecedented and has never been seen in the world before.”
According to Khamesi, the agriculture sector in the three provinces consumes 11 billion cubic meters of the precious water resources every year.
"If they reduce consumption by 3% a year, there would be no need to spend $4 billion to transfer seawater to those regions," he added.
What really amazed experts and academicians like Parviz Kardovani, the late eremologist and respected faculty member of Tehran University, is why governments are willing to invest colossal amounts on seawater transfers but do nothing concrete to educate the people and increase access to modern water conservation technologies.
Iran’s water sector is long plagued with poor management. Frequent droughts and over-extraction of surface waters and underground water tables have created a major dilemma calling for urgent and efficient short- and medium-term solutions.
Signs of the bad situation are the drying of lakes, rivers and wetlands, declining groundwater levels, land subsidence, degradation of water quality, soil erosion, desertification and dust storms.
