The combined capacity of Iran’s wastewater treatment plants showed a significant hike of 149% in the past 12 months to August 2018.
According to Paven, the Iranian Energy Ministry’s news portal, 23 wastewater treatment plants with a total capacity of 6.2 million cubic meters per day have been completed in the period, which have increased the total sewage treatment capacity to 10.36 mcm/d.
With the new facilities on swing, 194 wastewater treatment plants are currently operational in Iran.
The government has paced its plans to develop schemes aimed at curbing water wastage and overcoming water shortage that has exacerbated in the past few years. Based on the figures, the total wastewater treatment capacity in 2013, when President Hassan Rouhani took office, amounted to 3.8 mcm/d with 150 treatment facilities.
This capacity, which involved the establishment of 11,000 kilometers of network, has tripled in five years.
Currently, over 62,755 km of wastewater network are laid across the country. According to reports, over 295 cities in the country are now connected to the wastewater system.
Out of the total urban population in the country, 48.9% have been connected to the wastewater network. The figure shows an 8.42% growth since 2013. However, over 34 million people in 300 cities are facing water problems, 17 million of whom are living in areas with alarming water situations. This means that the expansion of wastewater treatment plants is lagging behind the establishment of wastewater networks.
New Bids
Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian in July announced signing 30 deals on water treatment projects to tackle dwindling water resources. The minister noted that such contracts can expedite the government’s plans to solve the water crisis.
“Over 7.5 billion cubic meters of usable water are annually produced in the country, of which 4.3 bcm are wasted,” he said. “While the country is grappling with declining water resources, less than 25% of wastewater are recycled.”
The minister noted this amount is not acceptable. Located in one of the world’s most water-stressed regions, Iran’s average precipitation rate has been lower than the global average for at least 10 years. Some experts and environmentalists denounce a widely-held notion that chronic water shortages can only be alleviated by higher precipitation.
Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, wastewater treatment and reclamation was virtually non-existent in Iran. Significant efforts were made in the 1990s. By 2001, there were 39 wastewater treatment plants with a total capacity of 712,000 cubic meters per day, treating the wastewater produced by a population of 3.8 million.
The wastewater actually treated was around 130 mcm per year. Seventy-nine treatment plants with a total capacity of 1.917 mcm/d were under construction and 112 treatment plants with a total capacity of 1.590 mcm were being studied for completion by 2010. A big portion of treated water is used in agriculture. 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.
