The authorities in Bushehr Province are dreading the onset of summer and the water problems they routinely endure during the warmer months.
Meteorologists say this summer will be between 1 and 1.5 degree Celsius hotter than average, making the availability of drinking water even more crucial.
Located in southwestern Iran, the arid Bushehr Province is one the country’s most water-stressed regions. The conditions in the province are so bad that water authorities have been forced to dispatch water tankers to various areas to ensure the locals have access to the precious resource.
“The only way we can survive this summer is for provincial authorities and the consumers to work closely together, closer than ever,” Keyqobad Yakideh, the head of Bushehr Water and Wastewater Company, was quoted as saying by online news outlet Asr Iran on Sunday.
He urged the residents of the province to “only use water when necessary” and practice judicious use of the rare resource.
To help ensure a constant supply of potable water, the official said desalination plants have been set up along the Bushehr’s coastal areas on the Persian Gulf.
However, environmental officials do not advocate the use of desalinated water, arguing that the environmental and financial costs of treating saltwater outweigh its benefits in the long run.
Some even attribute the gradual rise in the Persian Gulf’s salinity to the widespread use of desalination plants by the Persian Gulf littoral countries.
“Bushehr’s water shortage is exacerbated by the province’s reliance on old and eroded pipelines, from which large volumes of water seeps out and never reach their intended destination,” Yakideh said.
“We need around 2.1 trillion rials ($61 million) to renovate the pipelines. Around 37% of water are wasted due to the pipelines’ erosion.”
