Close to $40 million have been allocated to complete water supply projects in Mazandaran Province, including the second phase of a water treatment plant in Babol County, managing director of the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company (Abfa) said.
“The development projects have made slow progress due to financial constraints, but they are expected to gain momentum following the injection of new funds,” the Energy Ministry’s news portal also quoted Atabak Jafari as saying.
“When Babol water treatment plant becomes fully operational, it will supply safe drinking water [1,500 liters per second] to the cities of Babol, Babolsar and Fereydounkenar, as well as 57 villages, covering a total of 600,000 people,” he added.
Besides the water treatment facility and pipelines, the project will also build several pumping stations.
There are 3,000 villages and small towns in Mazandaran Province, of which 90% are supplied with piped water, Abfa chief added.
Babolsar County in the same province received water from Alborz Dam, also known as Lafour Dam, last August.
According to Ebrahim Yakhkeshi, managing director of Babol Water Company, water from Alborz Dam now enters a major water treatment plant in Babol County, the first phase of which was launched last year with a capacity of 1,000 liters per second, and with the completion of the pipe-laying project, Babolsar will also be linked to the treatment unit.
“Close to $17 million have been spent on the construction of the first phase of the water treatment plant and the installation of 70 kilometers of water transmission lines,” he said.
“Investment worth about $40 million are needed to complete the second phase of the treatment unit and lay 20 kilometers of pipelines to transfer water to Fereydounkenar.”
Yakhkeshi noted that the project to lay 1,000- and 1,200- mm pipes to Fereydounkenar has already started.
Alborz Dam
Alborz Dam is built on Lafour Lake in Savadkouh County, 45 km southeast of Babol. The dam is located near a beautiful forest and a village of the same name.
With a capacity of 150 million cubic meters of water, the dam also provides water required for 54,000 hectares of agricultural lands in Babol, Babolsar, Qaemshahr and Jouybar counties.
According to Behzad Bararzadeh, managing director of Mazandaran Water and Wastewater Company, only 12% of the water used in the northern Mazandaran Province are provided from surface water resources and 88% come from groundwater resources, which include 740 wells and 373 springs.
“We need to build new dams to make better use of our available surface water,” he added.
Located beside the Caspian Sea, Mazandaran receives water from numerous rivers, or water flowing from the mountains to the sea, in addition to the annual rainfall.
Referring to the poor conditions of water supply to the rural areas of the province, the official said the budget required to supply drinking water to 128 villages has been allocated and with the completion of the water projects, 3,000 subscribers will get access to piped water.
“In the first step, we are supplying water to 18 villages from Lafour Dam. For this purpose, 120 kilometers of pipeline and distribution network have been built, and in the next 10 days, water will be transferred from the treatment plant to the villages of Galougah, Ramsar and Behshahr,” Bararzadeh added.
Agricultural Products
Over 70 kinds of agricultural produce are grown in Mazandaran, which meets 40% of domestic demand for rice and 50% of citrus fruits.
The province is also the sole domestic supplier of kiwi.
Overextraction from renewable and underground water resources in Mazandaran has become a serious challenge, as close to 180 million cubic meters of water are extracted from aquifers via 2,500 unauthorized wells in the area.
There are about 142,000 authorized wells in the region, from which 1.3 million cubic meters of water are withdrawn annually.
Controlling the runoff in northern Mazandaran is essential and can have huge economic benefits.
Haraz Dam, which is under construction, has the capacity to control about 14% of the province's surface water and can positively affect the farming community.
The dam is designed to supply water to 110,000 hectares, mostly paddies, and drinking water to 14 cities and 500 villages. It will also help a 25-megawatt hydropower plant annually generate 170 gigawatt hours.
