TEHRAN – Iran’s Energy Ministry plans to inaugurate 10 new dams in six different provinces across the country by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 19, 2020), IRNA reported.

The mentioned dams are going to add 745 million cubic meters (mcm) to the total water storage capacity of Iran’s dams.

When operational, these dams will provide 8 mcm of water for the industrial sector and 696 mcm for the agricultural sector as well as 41 million cubic meters of drinking water. 

The mentioned projects will be inaugurated as a part of a major program called “A B Iran” [the acronyms A and B stand for water, electricity in Persian”, in which 10 trillion rials (over $238 million) of projects will be inaugurated in each of the country’s provinces, on average.   

Based on the “A B Iran” program, Energy Ministry plans to inaugurate some water, electricity projects across the country every week.

Earlier this month, Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian said 227 major water and electricity projects worth 331.74 trillion rials (about $7.89 billion) will be inaugurated in the country in the second half of the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 19, 2020).

“[In the mentioned period] 10 dams will be inaugurated in six provinces, by which a total of 745 million cubic meters of water will be added to the country's water resources,” Ardakanian said.

“The projects will provide drinking water to nine cities with a population of 1.5 million,” he added.

According to the official, in the next six months, over 1,124 villages will also be supplied with drinkable water.

The projects worth 7.45 trillion rials (about $177.38 million) and every week six villages will be connected to the country’s water network, Ardakanian said.

During the mentioned period, also 29 Wastewater treatment plants, over 3,000 megawatts (MW) capacity of thermal power plants and 278 MW capacity of renewable power plants, as well as projects for increasing the efficiency of the country’s agricultural sector through modernizing the irrigation systems, are planned to be inaugurated.

EF/