Isfahan Improving, Expanding Wastewater Systems

EghtesadOnline: To help ease the water crisis in the drought-stricken central plateau, a wastewater treatment plant will become operational in Ezhieh in Isfahan Province, head of the provincial water company said.

News ID: ۷۸۵۲۷۹

18 January 2020

"The project was completed in two years," Hashem Amini was quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal.

Close to 172 million cubic meters of wastewater is recycled in Isfahan Province every year, Financial Tribune quoted him as saying.

"Treating and reusing wastewater is a compulsion in trying to solve the worsening water crisis.”

Using activated sludge (AS) method to process sewage, the plant will process 720 cubic meters of wastewater a day.

AS consists of three main components, namely an aeration tank, a settling tank and a return activated sludge. It is equipped with axial flow pumps to transfer nitrified mixed liquor from the aeration zone to the anoxic zone for de-nitrification.

The venture will help farmers in the region and with a 20 km network, it will be used by 5,000 people.

He noted that of the total annual recycled water in the region (172 mcm), 60% or 100 mcm is used for farming and the rest for industries, watering green spaces, maintaining watersheds and helping anti-desertification programs.

After Yazd, Isfahan is the second biggest industrial hub in the country and 70% of Iran’s steel is manufactured in this province, which explains why tapping into unconventional water resources has become a pressing necessity.

Amini said to reduce demand for fresh water in Isfahan, an agreement was signed by the local water company and the provincial engineering council to build infrastructure for greywater treatment systems in the urban and suburban areas.

Isfahan University and Isfahan City Center (a large commercial and entertainment mall) have been equipped with greywater reuse systems and plans are underway to expand the system.

Greywater is defined as any domestic wastewater produced, excluding sewage. The main difference between greywater and sewage (blackwater) is the organic loading.

The water crisis in Iran, similar to many countries is spreading rapidly pushing governments, conservationists, water experts to pool minds to find workable solutions and curb consumption, especially in the key agro sectors.

An increasing numbers of economic experts and academicians have been warning successive governments in Tehran that that present framing practices are simply unsustainable and must be reformed to avoid a full-fledged water crisis in the not too distant future.

Without exception, all those concerned with the water crisis and ways to find effective solutions insist that the country needs farming methods that use much less water.