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Iran plans to use rain as potable water

Business Materials 2 October 2015 08:08 (UTC +04:00)
The Energy Ministry of Iran has been required to establish systems and facilities to collect rain and reuse it as potable water
Iran plans to use rain as potable water

Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 2

By Fatih Karimov - Trend: The Energy Ministry of Iran has been required to establish systems and facilities to collect rain and reuse it as potable water.

The Iranian parliament has passed a bill, requiring the ministry to collect rain in cities and villages with over 250 millimeters of annual precipitation and reuse it as potable water in the same regions, Iran's Tasnim news agency reported Oct.2.

An executive bylaw should be prepared by the ministries of energy and urban development and approved within two months by the cabinet.

The bill also requires the energy ministry to separate sources of water for drinking and other purposes in villages with over 200 families.

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.

Sattar Mahmoudi, Iran 's deputy energy minister said in May that recovering the used groundwater reserves in Iran is impossible.

The level of the country's aquifers has fallen by 20 meters due to inappropriate use of water resources during the past few years, Mahmoudi said.

In the current crop year (started on September 23, 2014), 192 millimeters of rainfall has been registered, a 13 percent decrease year-on-year, he noted.

The volume of excessive water extraction from the country's water resources amounted for some 100 billion cubic meters in recent years, the official said.

Iran's total annual water consumption is approximately 93 billion cubic meters, out of which about 92 percent is used in agriculture (86 billion cubic meters), 6.6 percent in municipality (6.18 billion cubic meters), and 1.2 percent in industry (1.12 billion cubic meters), according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Up to 70 percent of water used in the agriculture sector is being wasted, Iranian officials say.

Edited by CN

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