Unlike some countries, recycled wastewater is not used for drinking purposes in Iran as it is inconsistent with the Islamic law, the head of the department in charge of wastewater networks at the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company claimed. “It is merely used in industrial and agricultural sectors in Iran due to religious concerns,” Behnam Vakili also told reporters on Wednesday, ISNA reported.
Currently, developed countries have laid to rest all religious concerns by connecting running water to highly treated wastewater. Stressing that Iran’s wastewater output is estimated to be about 1.2 billion cubic meters per year, Vakili noted that 70% of water used by households can be reused in wastewater treatment plants.
According to the official, while 48% of the country’s treated wastewater are used in the agricultural sector, about 45% of that enter surface waters, less than 0.5% are utilized in industrial units and 5% are exploited to irrigate urban green space.
Vakili said that since the 1960s when the first wastewater treatment plant was launched in Iran, more than 200 plants have been built, of which 183 units are operational and a few are expected to go on stream soon. Underlining that 40 wastewater treatment plants are also active in villages, he noted that 49% of urban population and less than 0.5% of rural population are connected to the wastewater network.
“In other words, the population covered by the national wastewater network has surged from 2.4 million to 30 million in less than three decades,” he said.
"NWWEC is seeking to provide sustainable services in the field of wastewater treatment. In case of any malfunction in the operation of domestic treatment plants, an acute crisis, which would be more serious than water outage, can erupt."
Vakili underscored that to prevent such a crisis, the installations should be consistently updated and well maintained. The official also said that in view of the global shortage of water, treated wastewater can be deemed as part of water resources.
“Currently, 150 trillion rials [$3.5 billion] worth of wastewater installations are functioning in the country and 30-40 trillion rials [$714-$952 million] of wastewater infrastructure are under construction,” he said
Noting that the national wastewater network is 60,000 kilometers long and covers 316 cities, he announced that over 100 treatment plants are being built in Iran.
Vakili said pilot wastewater safety plans are underway in the provinces of Tehran and Alborz, which require the cooperation of other government bodies, such as the ministries of industry, agriculture, health and energy, as well as the Department of Environment.
