Forty water and wastewater treatment plants will be launched across the country in February, deputy for engineering and development affairs at the National Water and Wastewater Company said.
Shahin Pakrouh said 26 wastewater treatment plants with total capacity to recycle 483,000 cubic meters of wastewater a day will start work next month. The recycled water will be supplied to the agriculture and industrial sector, ILNA reported.
Based on the latest figures, 184 wastewater treatment plants are operating across Iran with annual output of 1.2 billion cubic meters of processed wastewater that is used for agricultural and landscape irrigation as well as various industries mostly in heating and cooling facilities. A total of 295 cities have wastewater systems.
Official reports say 47.6% of the urban population now has access to wastewater networks while hardly 0.5% of rural population is linked to the sewerage system.
Processing wastewater has become fundamental to the development of industrial and agriculture sectors. One cubic meter of polluted water contaminates 40 cubic meters of clean water, which explains why collecting wastewater is also key to protecting the environment.
Given years of dwindling rainfall and rising consumption, authorities and independent experts have called for greater attention to collecting, treating and recycling water.
Based on the latest figures, 184 wastewater treatment plants are operating across Iran with annual output of 1.2 billion cubic meters of processed wastewater that is used for agricultural and landscape irrigation as well as various industries mostly in heating and cooling facilities. A total of 295 cities have wastewater systems
Twelve water treatment plants and two desalination units will come on stream in February. With a capacity of one million cubic meters per day, the desalination plants will supply potable water to five million people.
“The projects costing $177 million were undertaken by state and private companies.”
Two desalination units are under construction in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, in Hormozgan Province off the Persian Gulf, and in the northern city of Bandar Torkaman in Golestan Province near the Caspian Sea.
“Private companies are developing the two units, each of them will turn 15,000 cubic meters of saline water into drinking water for use in coastal areas,” Pakrouh added.
To tackle the water crisis across continents, desalination is rapidly becoming a compulsion to produce water for growing populations. Around coastal regions, where salty water resources are plentiful, large and semi-large desalination plants are effective.
Water desalination centers provide a considerable amount of potable water in Iran’s northern and southern coastal areas.
There are 73 desalination plants in the country producing 420,000 cubic meters of water per day, and 148 million cubic meters per annum. Plans call for increasing daily desalination capacity to 600,000 cubic meters by 2021.
