The project to supply water to 10,000 villages without safe and sustainable drinking water across the country has registered about 30% progress in less than 15 months, according to the latest report by the Energy Ministry.
Water supply to about 3,000 villages has been finalized and operations are underway to provide potable water to other rural areas as well, the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven reported.
Of the total planned 10,839 km of transmission lines and 10,098 km of distribution mains in the first phase of the project, so far 3,001 km of transmission lines and 2,624 km of distribution mains have been installed.
Transmission pipes generally run in straight lines, have few side connections and are not tapped for customer services. Distribution mains carry water from transmission lines and distribute it throughout a community. These pipes have many side connections and are frequently tapped for customer connections.
Distribution mains are waterlines in streets, highways, alleys and easements used for the general distribution of water for irrigation, industrial and municipal purposes.
The rural water supply project is among the major plans of the Energy Ministry, which seeks to provide sustainable water supply for deprived areas in 31 provinces of the country. Started last year, the project is expected to be complete in three years.
The largest number of villages are scattered in Sistan-Baluchestan Province in southeast Iran with 1,751 villages.
According to the latest reports, the water supply operation to the target villages in Zanjan and Alborz provinces has progressed by more than 94% and all the water supply projects in the two provinces are expected to be completed within the next few months.
Operations in Markazi, Kohgilouyeh-Boyerahmad, Qom, Fars, Ilam and East Azarbaijan provinces have registered more than 60% progress and operations in Yazd, Hamedan, Lorestan, Semnan, South Khorasan and Bushehr provinces are also halfway through.
Currently, about 82% of the rural population in Iran have access to tap water. With the completion of the water supply project, the figure will increase to 90%. This is while, the global figure is 59.6%.
Likewise, over 99% of the urban population in Iran are supplied with safe and sustainable potable water while the global figure is 85.7%.
Reducing Consumption
In addition to providing water to rural areas, plans are underway to reduce water consumption especially in the agricultural sector by equipping water wells with smart meters.
The farming sector gobbles up a huge volume of water nationwide; to address the issue, smart meters are being installed on water wells as the new system helps utility companies closely monitor water use online and prevent excessive withdrawal from authorized wells.
Smart wells are advanced structures with sensors and valves installed downhole to allow easy and systematic monitoring.
The injudicious use and waste of groundwater from legal and illegal wells have emerged as a major problem in Iran's struggle against the water crisis that has gotten worse over the past half century, as precipitation declines and consumption rises.
Iran's annual water consumption exceeds 100 billion cubic meter, which is not acceptable by both regional and international norms.
Thousands of illegal wells used by farmers for agriculture have been identified and closed across Iran in the past few years. Restrictions on the use of surface and groundwater resources have also been imposed by the government to help preserve the precious but rapidly dwindling resource.
The steep decline in groundwater levels is having devastating consequences. Excessive pumping is harming groundwater tables and stopping wells from reaching the groundwater. When groundwater is overused, lakes, streams and rivers connected to groundwater also start diminishing and vanish as time passes.
