It provides potable water to 60,000 people in Abhar and Khorramdarreh counties, the Energy Ministry news portal Paven reported.
Costing $4.7 million, the plant has a production capacity of 400 liters per second, of which 220 liters goes to Abhar and the remainder to Khorramdarreh.
Water from Kinevers Dam, 14 km southwest of Abhar, is transferred to the plant and after treatment supplied via a 22.5 km of pipeline to the two counties, Financial Tribune reported.
Producing 12 million cubic meters of drinking water annually, the plant helps decrease the counties’ dependence on the rapidly depleting groundwater resources.
Located 300 km northwest of Tehran, Zanjan has very low precipitation. The energy ministry has undertaken hundreds of water and power projects in the province at a cost of $527 million.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the second water treatment plant in the province, Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said: “During the past six years, every three months a water treatment plant has come online and every 45 days a wastewater treatment unit starts work here.”
Wastewater Capacity
There are 224 sewage treatment plants in the country. Being located in an arid region, about 20 million hectares of agricultural land use treated wastewater. Efforts are underway to use processed wastewater for industries as well, Ardakanian said.
Total sewage treatment capacity has reached 11 million cubic meters per day.
Earlier in the month, the minister said 32 new plants are in different stages of construction and would go on stream in the next two years.
In addition to meeting part of water requirements of the farming and industrial sectors, water treatment plants also contribute to safeguarding the environment.
One cubic meter of polluted water contaminates 40 cubic meters of clean water, because of which collecting wastewater is key to protecting the environment.
In view of dwindling rainfall and rising water consumption, experts have called for greater attention to collecting, treating and recycling water.
Over 7.5 billion cubic meters of usable water is annually produced of which 4.3 bcm is wasted. However, less than 25% of wastewater is recycled and should be increased.
Over 63,000 km of wastewater networks has been laid and 295 cities are connected to the national network.
Official reports say 48% of the urban population now has access to wastewater networks while the percentage for rural areas is only 1%.