“The water supply project from Koochari Dam to Saveh and villages along the way needs 130 km of transmission lines. On completion it will transfer 440 liters of water per second to 300,000 people,” Mohammad Sabzi was quoted as saying by ISNA.
“So far 14 km of the pipes have been laid and 20 km will be added soon,” he said, adding that the rest of the project (96 km) will be carried out by private firms.
Water to Saveh is supplied by the Al-Ghadir Dam and 29 wells, the quality of which is not suitable for drinking.
The project requires $40 million and when completed, 14 million cubic meters of water per year will be transferred.
Rapidly declining water resources has compelled the government to increase the number of plains from which water withdrawal is banned from 69 in 1968 to 405 now. There 25 barred plains in Markazi Province.
Of the total 3 billion cubic meters of renewable water in the province, 91% is used by farmers, 5% for drinking and 4% by industries. Surface water comprises 700 million cubic meters of the renewable water and 2.3 bcm comes from groundwater resources.
Reducing water consumption in the agro sector and increasing efficiency using drip irrigation is another measure taken by the provincial water managers.
Drip irrigation is one of the known efficient systems used across the world. Instead of wetting the whole field, water is applied only to the plant root zone. The primary goal of drip irrigation is to supply water when plants need it most and at rates needed for proper plant growth.
With a capacity to hold 207 million cubic meters of water, Koochari Dam was constructed in 2016. Located eight kilometers southwest of Golpayegan County, it supplies water to several cities in three provinces of Isfahan, Qom and Markazi including Delijan, Saveh, Qom, Khansar, Khomein, Golpayegan, Mahallat, and Salafchegan among others.