A total of 12 water and power projects worth more than $300 million were launched in Kerman Province on Friday.
Among the inaugurated projects were the first phase of the water treatment plant in Bam City and water supply from Nesa Dam to the cities of Bam and Baravat, the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven reported.
The water is transferred from Nesa Dam to the cities of Bam and Baravat to supply dwellers in the eastern parts of the province with quality piped water.
The water transfer project included the installation of 57 km of water transmission lines, a pumping station with a capacity of 970 liters per second, two storage tanks of 10,500 cubic meters and 40 kilometers of power lines.
It seeks to transfer 20 million cubic meters of water per year to the cities of Bam and Baravat.
An extension of the pipeline will be used to transfer 10 million cubic meters of piped water to other rural districts in Narmashir, Rigan and Fahroj counties. About $12 million are needed to complete the venture.
The project supplies 240,000 residents of Bam and Baravat cities with safe and sustainable drinking water. With the completion of the project in the east of the province, it will cover an additional 422,000 people.
The first phase of the treatment plant has a capacity of 250 liters per second. When fully operational, the facility will have a processing capacity of 1,500 liters per second.
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.
Water Shortage
Although water transfer from the Persian Gulf to Sirjan in Kerman Province has 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 worsened 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Each year, a whopping 6 billion cubic meters of water are withdrawn from the drought-stricken province’s aquifers, of which 95%, 2% and 3% are respectively used by agricultural, industrial and household sectors.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.
Wastewater, Power Projects
Another major project in the province, the first phase of which has been launched, was Sirjan wastewater treatment plant and network.
It included 373 kilometers of network and a treatment facility with a capacity of 26,550 cubic meters per day.
Increasing the level of public health, preventing the pollution of groundwater resources, and use of recycled wastewater in the industry are among the benefits of the project. The project in Phase I covers 210,000 people.
In the power sector, the 310-megawatt gas unit of Butia Iranian Steel Company’s Combined-Cycle Power Plant was officially launched.
The power station has come on stream with an investment of $144 million by the private sector.
The unit runs on advanced F-Class turbines with an efficiency rate of 59%.
The construction of the plant's steam unit is near completion and is expected to become operational in the near future.
The 460-MW Butia project in Zarand County consists of a 310-MW gas unit and a steam unit with a production capacity of 150 MW.
Modern technology used in the plant will help reduce gas consumption by up to 100 million cubic meters per year. Besides, the plant will also use 30% less water compared to similar plants.
