Baku, Azerbaijan, June 13
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's environment protection organization has approved the project of transferring water from the Sea of Oman and the Gulf to Iran's central provinces, Saeed Motassadi, an official with the organization, said.
However, some details, including activity of the desalination plants, have not been approved yet, Motasaddi added.
In case of non-implementing the environmental considerations, the organization will prevent the project implementation, the official said, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported June 13.
An agreement was signed June 7 for transferring water from the Sea of Oman and the Gulf to Iran's southern provinces of Hormozgan and Kerman.
The project will start in the next six months and will be finalized in five years.
Some $803 million will be invested for the project implementation which will transfer 88 million cubic meters of water per year once comes on stream, according to the report.
Earlier, Iran's First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said the government is ready to deliver the project to private sector and then purchase water at a high price from the related companies and sell to the public at a low price.
Hamid Reza Janbaz, the managing director of the Iranian Water and Wastewater Company said in February that the private companies, which have undertaken the water transfer from the Gulf to the north of Kerman province, eye about $2.5-$2.9 per each cubic meter of water.
Previously, the Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian said his ministry invested in a project to transfer the water from the Gulf and Sea of Oman after desalination to Iran's southern Sistan and Baluchestan province and some central provinces to counter drought problems there.
Water shortage is expected to remain a key resource problem in Iran, similar to other regions in the Middle East, and causes regional instability if policy-makers don't develop some long-term water management strategies, particularly for irrigation projects.
Currently, 35 percent of the total population is suffering from drought and water shortage in north-eastern, eastern, south-eastern, southern and central Iran.
The Islamic Republic is located in an arid zone and the country faces a serious water shortage crisis. However, many experts believe that the current water shortage problem is a result of water resources mismanagement, rather than the drought.
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