In the past seven years more than 8 million people in rural areas were provided with safe water. “We hope by mid-summer more than 10 million rural people will have access to potable water,” Reza Ardakanian was quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry news portal Paven.
The new projects in the two central and southern provinces cover a population of over 60,000 people. In Markazi piped water was supplied to 74 villages via a 198-km pipeline for 29,231 people. The project cost $1.2 million.
In the southern Fars Province, 63 villages with 31,500 people were linked to the water network via a 118-km pipeline and cost $3 billion.
The Energy Ministry had planned 250 power and water projects for the current Persian calendar year that ends in March. “Of the completed projects 195 were in the water, wastewater, and electricity sectors across the country and cost $2.1 billion,” the minister said.
The remaining 55 are to completed by March and include construction of power plants, dams, irrigation networks, water and wastewater treatment plants.
Ardakanian said the Energy Ministry is cooperating with R&D centers, knowledge-based companies and academia to carry out the projects.
The entire urban population in Iran has access to piped water as do 80% of rural areas. Almost half the 84 million population is connected to the sewage system.
Regarding power sector, the minister said supplying electricity to remote rural areas is one of the priorities. Almost 30% of the population is in rural areas and the ministry is striving to supply power to all such areas including remote areas with only ten households.
Energy Ministry data show less than 2% of rural areas are not yet linked to the national grid. Installed power generation capacity has reached 84,500 megawatts and construction of power plants in several provinces is underway.
The upcoming projects, mostly financed by private companies, will add 12,000 MW to the grid and are due to be completed by early 2022 at a cost of $8 billion.