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Caspian Water Transfer Not Viable, Says DOE

Caspian Water Transfer Not Viable, Says DOE
Caspian Water Transfer Not Viable, Says DOE

The plan to transfer water from the Caspian Sea to the drought-hit Semnan Province for industrial and household use is not environmentally viable, according to a senior official at the Department of Environment.

“Frankly, there are more feasible alternatives,” Shahram Fadakar, director of the Marine Environment Office, told Tasnim.

The plan seeks to transfer water through a 180-kilometer pipeline to Semnan, which the DOE says “is not environmentally acceptable.”

Fadakar said judicious water use will prove to be a far more efficient and cost-effective solution.

“Household water consumption in Iran is three times that of the global average, while water use in the agriculture sector is more than twice the world standard,” he said.

The agriculture sector gobbles up more than 90% of the country’s water resources, while the average Iranian uses 250 liters of water per day. In metropolises such as Tehran and Isfahan, it can even go up to 350 liters per day.

Fadakar said the establishment of water-intensive industries in Semnan has exacerbated the problem and urged energy officials to consider recycling wastewater for industrial purposes.

Water experts have repeatedly called for policy reforms and advanced farming practices to tackle Iran’s huge water shortage, suggesting that the root cause of the problem is mismanagement and waste, and not the shortage of the precious resource.

Financialtribune.com