Nematabad Dam Will Help Promote Hamedan Farming
EghtesadOnline: Construction of Nematabad Dam in Hamedan Province is almost complete and is scheduled to be launched in two months, managing director of Hamedan Regional Water Company said.
“The dam was built at a cost of $2.5 million and as water from the dam is to be used largely for farming, we hope to see a significant increase in agricultural products in the region,” the Energy Ministry news portal Paven quoted Mansour Sotoudeh as saying.
Constructed on the Shahab River, the dam can hold 4.6 million cubic meters of water.
Nematabad Dam will provide water to 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, however, it was delayed and halted several times due to funding constraints. Now it is planned to open by the end of summer.
Two companies were involved in the construction of the dam. Pars Soil and Water Engineering Services Company was in charge of the physical process of the project.
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, is focused in building hydro-mechanical structures and storage tanks.
It has experience in designing, fabrication and erection of hydro-mechanical equipment for more than 65 dams in and out of Iran.
Due to shortage of surface water, many farmers in the province 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.
To help improve the region's agricultural water resources, construction of dams and wastewater treatment plants are among measures taken to help provide farmers with their fair share of water.
Hamadan Province in the Zagros Mountains has a population of 1.75 million people. It is a historic city and Iran’s fifth biggest grape producer after Fars, Qazvin, Khorasan Razavi and West Azarbaijan provinces.
Over $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 included 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.
In the past 30 years Iran has built over 600 dams and the dam-building policy has made the country the world’s third-biggest dam builder after China and Japan.