Projects to supply water to rural areas are underway in Kerman Province and according to plans, 442 villages will get piped water by the end of May, the managing director of Kerman Water and Wastewater Company said.
Mohammad Taheri made the remarks at a ceremony to launch the water supply project to 12 villages in Rabor County, IRNA reported.
“There are 48 villages with more than 20 families in the county and 71% of them are covered by the water utility,” he added.
With the completion of this water supply project, 19 more villages need to be provided with drinking water in Rabor.
In order to alleviate the water deficit in the province, the first phase of a project to transfer water from the Persian Gulf to Kerman was completed last year.
The 300-km pipeline with seven pumping stations can transfer 200 million cubic meters of desalinated water from the Bandar Abbas desalination plant in southern Hormozgan Province to Sirjan in southwest Kerman Province per year.
Each year, a whopping 6 billion cubic meters of water are withdrawn from the drought-stricken province’s aquifers, of which 95%, 2% and 3% are respectively used by agro, industrial and household sectors
An undertaking of the Persian Gulf Water Supply and Transmission Company, the project was launched in 2016 and cost $300 million.
Of the total water to be transferred, 150 mcm are sold to industrial plants, namely the Golgohar Mining and Industrial Complex in Sirjan, Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine in Rafsanjan County and the rest for drinking in the parched region.
The second phase of the project is near completion and will extend from Golgohar Mining and Industrial Complex, Iran’s largest iron ore concentrate and pellet producer, to Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine and then to Chadormalu Mining and Industrial Company in Yazd Province.
Desalinated water from the Persian Gulf in the south will help lessen the water crisis in the two industrial regions that have limited access to underground water resources and suffer from low precipitation.
Need for Transfer
Each year, a whopping 6 billion cubic meters of water are withdrawn from the drought-stricken province’s aquifers, of which 95%, 2% and 3% are respectively used by agro, industrial and household sectors.
The plains around Kerman no longer have the capacity for deeper wells to reach groundwater, and water transfer is apparently the only viable option.
Water demand in Kerman is 3,000 liters per second while maximum production capacity is 1,850 liters/second.
The province’s drinking water comes from 365 wells, three springs, eight aqueducts and two dams. The desert province, as is the case in most other regions in Iran, has been grappling with drought for years and piling unsurmountable pressure on urban authorities.
Officials have warned that the region’s groundwater balance is negative; meaning that the rate of water withdrawal exceeds the recharge rate.
Prolonged drought and rising temperatures in Iran, in line with global warming, have led to a rapid decline in the recharge of groundwater resources.
Although experts consider water transfer schemes to be environmentally hazardous and destructive, using water from Persian Gulf is the last resort. Many Arab littoral states have long been drawing water from the waterway at very high costs.
Located in an arid and semi-arid area, Iran is facing huge water deficits as declining rainfall has become a norm (with few exceptions) while climate change, waste and mismanagement continue to take a high toll. Overconsumption and depletion of underground resources for farming have made a bad situation worse.
