The second phase of a project to transfer water from the Persian Gulf to Kerman Province will be launched later this month and by the end of 2021 seawater is planned to reach Yazd, Isfahan, South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi provinces, the minister of industries, mining and trade said.
In the first phase, which came on stream last November, 330 kilometers of pipelines were laid to carry 180 million cubic meters of desalinated water from Bandar Abbas Desalination Plant in southern Hormozgan Province to Gol-Gohar Mining and Industrial Complex in Sirjan County, Kerman, a year.
“The second phase will transfer water to the giant Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine in Rafsanjan County via a 150-km pipeline and then to copper mines in Shahr-e-Babak County through a 75-km pipeline,” ISNA quoted Alireza Razm-Hosseini as saying.
Each year 6 billion cubic meters of water is withdrawn from the drought-stricken province’s aquifers, of which 95%, 2% and 3% are respectively used for farming, industries and households.
The plains around Kerman no longer have the capacity for deeper wells to reach groundwater and water transfer is apparently the last best available option. Water demand in the dry region is 3,000 liters per second while maximum production is 1,850 liters/second.
The province’s drinking water comes from 365 wells, three springs, eight aqueducts and two dams. Like most other regions in Iran, Kerman has been grappling with drought for years.
Officials have warned that the region’s groundwater balance is negative as the rate of withdrawal is over and above recharge.
Prolonged drought and rising temperatures in Iran plus the worsening global warming have led to a rapid decline in the recharge of groundwater resources.
The second transmission line will divert water from the southern waterway to South Khorasan and Khorasan Razavi provinces in the east and northeast via a 1,550-km pipeline, Razm-Hosseini said.
Pipe-laying to Khorasan is estimated to cost $2.35 billion. The project has registered 35% physical progress. The third water transmission line will take water to Yazd and Isfahan for use in mines and industries in the two central provinces. This transmission line will run for 910 km, the minister noted.
It is said that water transfer from the Persian Gulf can help alleviate the worsening crisis in the water-stressed regions that have limited access to groundwater and forever suffer from low precipitation.
“In 2012 the issue came up as to whether water-intensive industries should be relocated to the coastal regions or water should be brought to such industries. Experts then concluded that it was not economically feasible to clog roadways to carry millions of tons of minerals to the industries [if relocated to the shores], and so seawater should be transferred from the sea to the central plateau,” the minister said.
“Work to transfer water started in 2013 with the help of large mining and industrial companies including Gol-Gohar Mining and Industrial Complex, National Iranian Copper Industries Company, and Chadormalu Mining and Industrial Company,” he concluded.
However, international research has shown that large-scale interbasin water transfer schemes (IBTs) are economically risky, and usually also come with significant social and environmental costs; usually for both the river basin providing and the river basin receiving the water.
From an environmental perspective, IBTs in general interrupt the connectivity of river systems and therefore disrupt fish spawning and migration. They alter natural flow regimes, sometimes with great ecological cost to threatened aquatic species or protected areas, alter river morphology, contribute to salinization and can also enable the transfer of invasive alien species between river basins. IBTs may facilitate unwise and unsustainable urban and irrigation developments.
