“The dams will supply drinking water to several counties including for farming and industrial use and control flooding,” Dariush Hasan-Nejad was quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry news portal Paven.
Torrential rains and flash floods have inflicted heavy loss on lives and property in the province attributed largely to delays in dam construction due to what officials say are funding constraints.
There are five dams in the western province including Maruk Dam in Dorud County with a capacity of 106 million cubic meters, Ivashan Dam in Khorramabad City with 52-mcm capacity, Haleh Dam in Kuhdasht County with 3.5-mcm capacity, and Khanabad and Koznar dams in Aligudarz County that can hold 14 mcm and 1 mcm of water respectively, Hasan-Nejad noted.
Regarding ongoing projects, he said: “Houzian and Ali Mahmoud dams in Aligudarz County have made 98% and 21% progress, Taj Amir Dam in Delfan County is half complete, Kamandan Dam in Azna has reported 82% physical progress, Absardeh and Shahid Borujerdi dams in Borujerd County have logged 41% and 10% progress, respectively.
Construction of Ziba Mohammad and Makhmalkuh dams in Khorramabad City has begun recently.
Lorestan is among the regions with abundant rainfall. However, huge volumes of water is discharged due to lack of dams to harness the water flow – a claim disputed by water experts who insist that despite the construction of hundreds of dams in the past half century in different parts of the country the water shortages have not been addressed.