The construction of a pipeline and pumping station to transfer water from Nesa Dam in Kerman Province to the cities of Bam and Baravat has progressed by more than 93%, the deputy for planning and development at the Kerman Regional Water Company said.
Mohsen Amiri added that the construction of the water treatment plant has made over 63% progress, IRNA reported.
“The required equipment has been transported to the facility and its installation is underway,” he said.
Aimed at supplying dwellers in the eastern parts of the province with quality piped water, the initiative is expected to come on stream in about a year.
According to the official, the same pipeline will be used to transfer piped water to other rural districts in Narmashir, Rigan and Fahroj counties. About $12 million are needed to complete the venture on time.
Nesa Dam, with a capacity of 168 million cubic meters, is located in the eastern part of Kerman Province, 80 km from the city of Bam.
The water treatment plant will have a processing capacity of 1,500 liters per second.
Although water transfer from the Persian Gulf to Sirjan in Kerman Province eased the water crisis in industries like Golgohar Mining and Industrial Complex, other parts of the region are still suffering from a chronic shortage.
A 300-km pipeline with seven pumping stations annually transfers 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water from the Bandar Abbas desalination plant in southern Hormozgan Province to Sirjan.
Several development projects in the province are on hold, as water tension in the dry area has aggravated over the last decade and many households have started to evacuate villages.
Each year, a whopping 6 billion cubic meters of water are withdrawn from the drought-stricken province’s aquifers, of which 95%, 2% and 3% are respectively used by agricultural, industrial and household sectors.
The plains around Kerman no longer have the capacity for deeper wells to reach groundwater and water transfer is apparently the only viable option.
Water demand in Kerman is 3,000 liters/second while the maximum production capacity is 1,850 liters/second.
The province’s drinking water comes from 365 wells, three springs, eight aqueducts and two dams. The desert province, as is the case in most other regions in Iran, has been grappling with drought for years and piling pressure on urban authorities.
