A large volume (20-35%) of drinking water is lost due to seepage and rusting pipelines in the country.
Almost half of the water network in cities and small towns are old and should be replaced to reduce the monumental water loss in the network as the nation continues to struggle with the worsening water crisis.
ISNA says non-revenue wastage rate is 27%, of which 15% are real losses (through seepage, also referred to as physical loss) and 12% are apparent losses (through water theft or metering inaccuracies).
A mind-boggling 700 million cubic meters of water is wasted annually at a time when the nation’s prominent environmentalists and economic experts struggle to find effective ways to curb consumption and waste.
A World Bank study puts the global estimate of physical water losses at 32 billion cubic meters a year, half of which is in the developing countries. If water loss in developing countries is halved, the saved water would be enough for 90 million people.
Non-revenue water refers to water that has been produced and lost in different ways before it reaches the consumer.
"Wastage in the developed world is said to be 15%, as there is no such thing as "zero wastage" even in the most developed grids in the world," Reza Pour-Rajab, director of Rural Water and Sewage Company of Tehran Province said.
As per the Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2017-22), the wastage rate should keep declining 0.5% a year to reach 23% in 2022.
If water loss in the developing world is halved, the saved water would be enough for 90 million people
According to the official, the crucial task of reducing water wastage will not be accomplished unless 7,000 kilometers of the water grid is rehabilitated.
"Efficiently managing the dwindling water resources is more challenging in rural areas largely due to the decentralized networks and lack of meters."
According to the Geological Survey & Mineral Exploration Organization of Iran, close to 37 million Iranians live in water-stressed regions. This is the dire condition when capita water consumption in metropolises like Tehran and Isfahan exceeds 200 liters. The global average is 150 liters.
Iran annually needs 97 billion cubic meters of water, while the country has less than 88 bcm of renewable sources.
