Iran wants to become the world’s sixth largest steelmaker by 2025 and development plans to this effect are underway across the country.
So far, so good. However, policy and decision makers seem to be oblivious of the fact that water-intensive steel plants like Chadormalu, Mobarakeh and Gol-e-Gohar are located in the most arid provinces namely Yazd, Isfahan and Kerman where annual precipitation does not exceed 60 millimeters.
According to Parviz Kardavani, a veteran eremologist and respected faculty member of Tehran University, such development projects can be a recipe for disaster as they wipe out limited water resources in the arid and desert regions, ISNA reported.
"It is no honor to be the world’s 10th largest steelmaker…The success has come at a high cost," Kardavani rued, saying that producing one cubic meter of steel requires at least 20 cubic meters of water.
The professor believes that those who intend to expand steel plants far from coastal areas are betraying the country.
"Importing steel is better than importing food," he noted, asserting that there will be no water left for farming if expansion of steel mills in the drought-stricken central plateau continues.
The attitude of “developing industries come what may” will lead to irreparable loss, he warned.
“These industries should be built in the coastal regions with ample access to seawater. If officials really care about people’s lives in Yazd [in central Iran], they need to move toward less water-intensive industries to meet their industrialization goals,” Kardovani said.
The no-nonsense conservationist called for rewriting macro industrial policies, namely those related to and dependent on water like the steel sector.
"I really wonder how officials keep inaugurating dozens of factories in Yazd and Isfahan without taking a moment to ponder the implications of such unsustainable development," he said, adding that such plants need colossal volumes of water to function while people's access to potable water remains limited.
Doomed
To address the worsening water crisis, officials have proposed diverting water from the Persian Gulf in the south, a scheme that environmental experts believe is doomed.
“Similar plans in the past have never delivered, and the latest proposals too are not well thought out, especially when it comes to environmental protection,” Kardovani was quoted by the news agency as saying.
The environmentalist pointed to the water transfer from Kouhrang County in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province to Yazd, which helped temporarily alleviate water stress but ultimately exacerbated the problem. Studies later showed that the groundwater reserves had depleted significantly.
However, some experts, including Muhammad Reza Alamdari, an official in the Ministry of Industries, Mines and Trade, claim that developing Yazd Province’s steel industry is “crucial to the goal” of becoming the sixth largest steel producer in the world by 2025.
Officials insist that transferring water from the Persian Gulf will benefit both the steel industry and farmers, but if the past is anything to go by, the transferred water often not distributed fairly.
“We are not opposed to industrialization. However, we are pushing for sustainable development,” Kardovani said, adding that it is “only in Iran” that one sees water-intensive industries in parched lands such as Yazd, Isfahan and Kerman.
