Wastewater Company, Tehran Refinery to Help Meet Industrial Water Demand
EghtesadOnline: An estimated one million cubic meters of wastewater was transferred from the South Tehran Wastewater Treatment Complex to Tehran Oil Refinery in the last eight months, deputy operations manager at Tehran Water and Wastewater Company said Saturday.
"As per a 2015 agreement between TWWC and Tehran Refinery, the former should provide the latter with 2 mcm of wastewater per annum for 30 years," Abbasali Moserzadeh was quoted as saying by ILNA.
The huge volume accounts for 5% of South Tehran Wastewater Treatment Complex capacity that is used for industrial sectors.
"Close to 2 mcm of sewage will be delivered to the refinery per year of which 60% will go to the treatment complex via a 3.5 kilometer pipeline", Financial Tribune quoted him as saying.
While 48% of the country’s treated wastewater is used in the agricultural sector, about 45% of it enters surface waters, less than 0.5% is utilized b y industrial units and 5% to irrigate urban green spaces.
Stressing that wastewater output is estimated at 1.2 billion cubic meters per year, he stressed that 70% of water used by households can and should be reused in wastewater treatment plants.
Unlike some countries, recycled wastewater is not used for drinking purposes in Iran as it is against Islamic tenets, the head of the department in charge of wastewater networks at the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company, Behnam Vakili argued.
Wastewater is used in the industrial and agricultural sectors.
Vakili added that since the 1960s when the first wastewater treatment plant was launched in Iran, more than 200 plants have been built, of which 183 are operational and the rest will go on stream soon.
Underlining that 40 wastewater treatment plants are active in rural areas, he said 49% of urban population and less than 0.5% of rural population are connected to the wastewater network.
“The population covered by the national wastewater network has surged from 2.4 million to 30 million in less than three decades,” he said.
According to NWWEC, wastewater systems that cost 150 trillion rials ($3.5 billion) are functioning in the country. The national wastewater network extends over 60,000 kilometers and covers 316 cities.