Due to a lack of water in Yazd Province and the declining level of groundwater resources, the depth of water wells has surpassed 120 meters, a parliamentarian of Yazd said.
“We see a 40-50 cm drop in water level in the province every year. Despite drilling many wells across the central province, we cannot supply the water needed for the drinking sector in Yazd,” Mohammad Saleh Jokar was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
Referring to land subsidence in different regions of the province, which has been the result of the reduction in the level of groundwater resources, he said land subsidence has caused extensive damage to agricultural lands and roads.
“Railroad tracks, buildings as well as cultural and historical structures have also been damaged. All the cities of the central province are facing water tension,” he said, adding that the water needs of more than 300 villages are supplied by water tankers.
To address the issue, the second phase of the project to transfer water from the Persian Gulf to Yazd is underway.
Yazd has faced a great deal of tensions regarding water supply due to the severe decline in rainfall in the past few years. Average precipitation in Yazd has fallen below 50 mm per year. The mega project is expected to address a significant part of Yazd’s water issues and provide water for drinking, industrial, mining and agricultural purposes.
Building three desalination units in Bandar Abbas, each with a daily capacity of 200,000 cubic meters, laying 720 kilometers of transmission lines and setting up several pumping stations are part of the water transfer project that will take about four years to complete. Upon launch, about 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water will be transferred to Yazd Province annually.
The Persian Gulf water transfer plan will also cover the provinces of Hormozgan, Kerman, South Khorasan and Isfahan.
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.
Desalinated Water
The following year, an 850-km pipeline was also launched 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.
Of the total volume of planned water transfer, Golgohar Complex, Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine and Chadormalu Company annually receive 45 mcm, 40 mcm and 30 mcm, respectively. The rest is used for drinking purposes in the dry region.
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.
On average, 1 billion cubic meters of water are extracted from groundwater sources in Yazd every year, resulting in severe water deficits in most plains.
Groundwater overdraft can lead to the destruction of vegetation, increase the possibility of dust storms, create sinkholes and increase the salinity of groundwater.
Yazd is in central Iran where two deserts Dasht-e-Kavir and Dasht-e-Lut meet. It has a dry and arid climate and suffers from chronic drought.
Water transfer from the Persian Gulf is expected to alleviate the water crisis in Iran’s central regions (Yazd and Kerman) that have limited access to underground water resources and suffer from low precipitation.
The two province’s drinking water comes from wells, springs, aqueducts and dams. The desert provinces, as is the case in most other regions of Iran, have piled unsurmountable pressure on the dwindling groundwater resources.
The plains around Kerman and Yazd no longer have the capacity for deeper wells to reach groundwater and water transfer is apparently the last option.
