Lowering the rate of electricity wastage nationwide will cost a whopping $3.3 billion, while curbing water wastage in the capital Tehran by merely 1% will cost $60 million, energy officials say.
Houshang Falahatian, deputy energy minister, mentioned the high rate of electricity wastage at distribution networks and said energy wastage was curbed by more than 3% over the past year, reaching 11.3% from nearly 15%, ISNA reported.
“However, reaching the optimum wastage rate of 8% will save $3.3 billion,” he said, adding that the goal is to reduce wastage to below 10% in the current year.
The 11.3% wastage rate is the country’s average that varies in different parts of the country.
“In some provinces, power wastage is below 8%, but it is higher than the national average in some other provinces due to unauthorized consumption,” he said.
The official underlined the 11.3% figure as an “unprecedented achievement” over the past 35 years, but stressed that the volume should be curbed by at least 3 more percent nationwide.
Mohammad Parvaresh, managing director of Tehran Province Water and Wastewater Company, put drinking water wastage in the capital at 24% and said it will cost around $60 million for curbing the wastage by a meager 1%.
Water is subsidized and consumers pay only one-third of real prices in Iran, hence the government should make efforts to lower water wastage.
Most of the wastage is caused by leaks in the dilapidated distribution network and unauthorized consumption.
The government is planning to cut wastage to 15% by renovating the distribution network and deploying more accurate water meters.
With Iran’s annual precipitation only a third of the global average, heavy overconsumption has ravaged its water resources.
A 2013 study by the World Resources Institute ranked Iran as the world’s 24th most water-stressed nation, putting it at extremely high risk of facing a water crisis.
