New Dam in Hamedan to Help Expand Farming

EghtesadOnline: Nematabad Dam in Hamedan Province was launched Sunday along with other water projects.

News ID: ۷۵۱۰۵۷

21 September 2020

The dam cost of $3.2 million and holds 4.6 million cubic meters of water that is to be used largely for farming, the Energy Ministry news portal Paven reported.

Built on Shahab River, Nematabad Dam will provide water for 450 hectares of farmlands and help improve the region's agricultural water resources.

The dam is situated north of Nematabad, a village in Asadabad County. Work started in 2004 but was delayed several times due to funding constraints.

Two companies were involved in the construction of the dam. Pars Soil and Water Engineering Services Company was in charge of the physical work.

A leading contractor in Iran, the company provides services in the civil and infrastructure fields including construction of concrete dams, highways and irrigation networks.

The other company, Fanavary Novin Niroo Company, focuses largely on building hydro-mechanical structures and storage tanks.

It has experience in designing and installing hydro-mechanical equipment for more than 65 dams in and out of Iran.

Due to shortage of surface water, farmers in the province normally use groundwater from illegal deep wells. The government has started sealing unauthorized wells to conserve the rapidly depleting resource and discourage the harmful practice of digging and using illegal wells.

Illegal Wells

Of the 7,300 illegal wells in the province, about 4,000 were sealed in the past five years. Sealing the wells has helped save 268 million cubic meters of water.

The move also helps maintain a semblance of stability in groundwater levels in the region that were in sharp decline.

According to the Energy Ministry, there are almost 470,000 legal and 320,000 illegal wells in the country and every year an estimated 14,000 illegal wells are sealed.

Hamedan is Iran’s fifth grape producer after Fars, Qazvin, Khorasan Razavi and West Azarbaijan.

To help increase the region's agricultural water resources, construction of dams and wastewater treatment plants are among measures taken to help farmers get their fair share of water.

Hamadan Province in the Zagros Mountains is a historic with a population of 1.75 million people. More than $2.3 million worth of agricultural products were exported from the western province in the first month of the current Iranian year (March 20-April 19).

Exports mainly include raisins, tomato paste, potatoes, various kinds of seeds, watermelon, honey and pickles.

As Iran is a country with disproportionate spatial distribution of rainfall, a major part of the rain (usually) falls in a short period and in specific regions. Reservoirs help collect the rainwater to be used during the rest of the year.

Also on Sunday rural water supply projects were inaugurated in Hamedan to provide water for over 27,500 people in the villages and suburbs of six counties.