TEHRAN - All dams across Iran are fully prepared for handling potential floods in the winter, the director of planning affairs at Iran Water and Power Resources Development Company (IWPCO) said.

Due to the recent rainfalls across Iran, the flood flows have been completely contained in the dam reservoirs and the empty volume of the country’s dam reservoirs have been reduced to 2.6 billion cubic meters, IRNA quoted Mohammad Mousavi Kani as saying.

According to meteorological forecasts regarding the occurrence of major floods in the western and southwestern basins of the country in the current Iranian calendar month (started on November 21), so far about 750 million cubic meters of water has been contained in the dams of the mentioned regions.

Some 87 percent of the mentioned figure has been stored in Karun 4, Gotvand, and Seymareh dams, according to Mousavi.

As reported, over two billion cubic meters of water has been stored in the dams under IWPCO management since the beginning of the current water year (started in late September), of which 38 percent was realized in the current month.

Back in May, the Energy Ministry’s portal (Paven) had announced that 190 dams, with a total reservoir capacity of 48.488 billion cubic meters, were under study or being constructed across Iran.

As reported, 90 of the mentioned dams with a total reservoir capacity of 29.724 billion cubic meters were under study and another 100 dams with a total reservoir capacity of 18.7672 billion cubic meters were under construction.

Out of a total of 183 currently operational dams across Iran, 52 are related to the Caspian Sea catchment area, 12 are based in Urumieh basin, 68 dams are located in the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman watersheds, 34 dams are in the Central Plateau, 11 dams are in Sarakhs catchment basin, and another six dams are located across the eastern boundary basin (Hamoun).

EF/MA