73.5% of Isfahan Urban Population Connected to Wastewater Network
EghtesadOnline: Currently, 73.5% of the urban population in Isfahan Province are connected to the sewerage network, managing director of the provincial Water and Wastewater Company said.
“The company covers more than 3.2 million people in 36 cities of the central province and close to 6,000 people in rural areas,” the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven also quoted Hashem Amini as saying.
“Of a total of 28 wastewater treatment plants in Isfahan Province, 10 plants were built in the past decade,” he said.
“With over 8,300 km of wastewater collection network, Isfahan Province accounts for nearly 13% of the total sewerage system in the country.”
Regarding the advantages of the wastewater treatment plants, Amini said, “The construction of such plants helps save a significant amount of seemingly unusable water and by processing the water, it can be used in various industries, agriculture and the development of urban green space.”
Over 172 million cubic meters of sewage are recycled in Isfahan Province every year. Of the total annual recycled water in the province, 60% or 100 mcm are used for farming and the rest for industries, green space, maintaining watersheds and anti-desertification programs.
After Yazd, Isfahan is the second biggest industrial hub in the country, as 70% of Iran’s steel are manufactured in this province, which explains why unconventional water resources have become a pressing necessity.
Industrial Usage
Mobarakeh Steel Company, the largest steel company in Iran and the wider Middle East and North Africa region, is the first industrial complex that has replaced freshwater with reclaimed wastewater in Isfahan Province.
The company has set up a 500-km wastewater network, equipped with 14 pumping stations, to collect and transfer 12 million cubic meters of sewage per year from nine small towns, including Mobarakeh, Lenjan, Dizicheh, Zibashahr, Talkhouncheh and Sadeh, to a wastewater treatment plant in the complex.
Costing $40 million, the plan has helped the company reduce its water extraction from depleting groundwater resources by 45%.
Operations to increase the length of network to 700 kilometers are underway and more towns will be linked to the grid by the yearend.
A part of the factory's need has been met from Zayandehroud Dam, but due to chronic water shortages, the steelmaker is rethinking policy with the understanding that using water from Zayandehroud Dam is no longer an option.
Developing wastewater infrastructure can help ensure that recycling can better address the company’s need for long-term supplies.
Over 7.5 billion cubic meters of usable water are annually produced, of which 4.3 bcm are wasted. Less than 25% of wastewater are recycled – a situation that demands focus and responsibility from those in charge.