The construction of the second phase of Torbat-e Heydariyeh wastewater treatment plant in Khorasan Razavi Province has made 40% progress and will become operational in 2024, the managing director of the provincial water and wastewater company said.
“The development project will help increase the plant’s processing capacity to 66 liters per second,” Alireza Abbasi was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal.
Implemented by the private sector, the project is estimated to cost $10 million, he added.
Abbasi said the output of the plant can help supply much-needed reclaimed water to industries in the parched region where extraction from renewable water resources has reached alarming levels and at least 25% of what is being consumed now belong to future generations.
The facility is being built with the state of the art technology and its output can be used for irrigating saffron farms.
The water official noted that people in Iran’s most important religious province have not yet recognized the scale and scope of the water crisis.
“It is the water company's responsibility to spread awareness, otherwise a bad situation will get worse,” he said.
The city of Torbat-e Heydariyeh is considered the capital of saffron in the world.
Drought has led to a significant decline in Iran’s production and export of saffron, traditionally Iran’s major non-oil export commodity.
According to the official, the decline in precipitation, especially in major saffron producing provinces of South Khorasan, North Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi, has led to a 70% decline in production.
“We used to produce 450 tons of saffron per year, which figure has decreased to 200 tons this year,” he said.
Processing wastewater has become fundamental to the development of industrial and agriculture sectors. One cubic meter of polluted water contaminates 40 cubic meters of clean water, which explains why collecting wastewater is key to protecting the environment.
A total of 220 wastewater treatment plants are currently operational across Iran and total sewage treatment capacity is 11 million cubic meters per day.
Approximately 7.5 billion cubic meters of usable water are produced annually, of which 4.3 bcm are wasted.
If wastewater is not treated properly, it can have dire consequences on the environment and human health.
Besides contaminating drinking water, it can harm marine and wildlife habitats, oxygen depletion and restrictions on recreational water use as well as fish farmng.
