Iran plans to build 40 water and wastewater treatment plants in the current fiscal year (started March 21), the planning and development deputy of National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran (Abfa) said on Sunday.
“The plants, which will have a total treatment capacity of over 1.5 million cubic meters of water and wastewater, are estimated to cost about 17.6 trillion rials ($360 million),” Ali Asqar Qane' was also quoted as saying by ISNA.
"The plants include 26 plants for wastewater treatment, 12 for treating water and two desalination plants, which can significantly enhance the quality of potable water."
Qane’ noted that the treatment plants can treat 1 million cubic meters of water per day.
"Based on the latest figures, 184 wastewater treatment plants are operational across Iran with an annual output of about 1.2 billion cubic meters of processed wastewater," Bahman Valiki, a senior official at Abfa, told Zist Online in January. According to Vakili, 295 cities are equipped with wastewater systems.
"Out of the total urban population in the country, 47.6% have been connected to wastewater networks," he said.
However, the existing plants can only treat the sewage generated by 18.5 million people that accounts for 31-32% of the country's urban population.
"This means that the expansion of wastewater treatment plants throughout the country is far behind that of wastewater networks," Vakili said.
Vakili said the development of sewage networks started in villages long after they were established in cities, because of which fewer than 0.5% of Iran's rural population is linked to the wastewater network.
Over 300 cities were beset by water shortage during the last summer. Iran is situated in an arid and semi-arid region and average precipitation rate has fallen to levels way below the global average while underground water resources are depleting rapidly.
Hamid Chitchian, the former energy minister, said late July that Tehran Province’s wastewater treatment capacity has increased to nearly 1 mcm/d from 500,000 cm/d four years ago.
Underlining the importance of processing wastewater in the development of industrial and agriculture sectors, Chitchian added that each cubic meter of polluted water contaminates 40 cubic meters of clean water, which explains why collecting wastewater is key to preserving the environment.
According to statistics, Iran’s water recycling in agriculture is below 50%. Almost 90% of the scarce water resources are consumed by the agriculture sector.
