“The first unit was inaugurated in 2013 with a capacity to recycle 1,700 cubic meters of water per day,” the Energy Ministry’s news portal Paven quoted Hashem Amini as saying.
The plant offers services to over 10,000 people in the region and with the two new units 20,000 people will benefit, Financial Tribune quoted him as saying.
Construction of the two units and laying 77 kilometers of pipelines have cost $1.77 million.
Expansion of the plant should help ease the water crisis in the drought-stricken central plateau.
“Of the total water we use in our homes, about 70% on average is converted into sewage that can be recycled and used for farming and industrial purposes. Treated wastewater can help prevent the drilling of more wells,” Amini said.
Treating and reusing wastewater has become a major priority in many countries.
To improve the wastewater situation in the region, countries are embarking on massive programs to collect and treat wastewater.
The investment needs in the water supply and sanitation sector are significant. A World Bank report said last August that as cities continue to grow, there is an opportunity to ensure that investments are made in the most sustainable and efficient way possible.
“Future urban development requires approaches that minimize resource consumption and focus on resource recovery, following principles of the circular economy. Wastewater is and should be considered a valuable resource from which energy and nutrients can be extracted, as well as an additional source of water,” it said.
Close to 172 million cubic meters of sewage is recycled in Isfahan Province every year. Of the total annual recycled water in the province, 60% or 100 mcm is used for farming and the rest for industries, green spaces, maintaining watersheds and anti-desertification programs.
Industrial Hub
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 unconventional water resources have become a pressing necessity.
A total of 220 wastewater treatment plants are operating across Iran and total sewage treatment capacity has reached 11 million cubic meters a day.
An additional 32 plants are in different stages of construction and should come on stream within two years.
Over 7.5 billion cubic meters of usable water is annually produced of which 4.3 bcm is wasted. Less than 25% of wastewater is recycled -- a situation that demands focus and responsibility from those in charge.
Global Status
Wastewater treatment is a process used to convert wastewater into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle with minimum impact on the environment, or directly reused. The latter is called water reclamation because treated wastewater can then be used for other purposes.
The generation of wastewater has increased globally mainly due to urbanization and industrialization. The scarcity of pure water in areas including refineries, manufacturing plants, and power plants is driving the use and expansion of wastewater treatment plants.
According to Business Wire, the global wastewater treatment system market is expected to cross $15 billion by the end of 2025 and is largely driven by the stringent laws enacted by governments for environment preservation.
Wastewater treatment plants are expensive to setup and maintain. This acts as one of the major obstacles hampering the adoption of wastewater treatment system and is a major challenge in poor countries and for small businesses that have budget constraints.