TEHRAN- Iranian Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian has announced that the population in the rural regions which enjoy stable drinking water supply will reach 10.2 million by the end of the current government's incumbency (August).

The minister said that over eight million people in 11,962 villages have been supplied with drinking water during this government’s incumbency, and the figure will reach 9.3 million by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).

Drinking water is supplied to 30 villages every week on average in the framework of the Energy Ministry’s A-B-Iran program.

Since the beginning of the first phase of the A-B-Iran scheme [the acronyms A and B stand for water, electricity in Persian] in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19, 2020), every week several energy projects have been inaugurated across the country.

Villages are often mentioned as some keys to the development of countries, and the allocation of a proper amount of budget to rural development always brings fruitful economic results.

In Iran, where villages account for generating 20-23 percent of the value-added in the country, the development of rural areas has been always a top agenda of the governments’ activities.

The sustainable economic, social, and cultural development of the villages is one of the major priorities of the current government, and many projects implemented and underway in this regard have led to outstanding development in the rural regions.

It is while the sanctions have created many limitations and difficulties for the Iranian economy in recent years.

The supply of drinking water to the villages has been expedited by the current government, especially since the last Iranian calendar year (March 2019-March 2020).

Under the framework of the A-B-Iran program, the Energy Ministry has inaugurated many projects to supply drinking water to the rural areas.

All such programs and projects are hoped to bring sustainable development to the country’s villages and lead to boosting production, which is now seriously pursued in the country.

MA/MA