TEHRAN – Former Head of Iran’s Water and Power Resources Development Company Mohammadreza Rezazadeh has said the country is currently over 95 percent self-sufficient in dam construction.

“We are now more than 95 percent self-sufficient in the design and construction of dams in Iran, and we only import some parts and equipment for hydropower plants,” Rezazadeh told IRIB on Saturday.

According to the official, dam construction is as important as other strategic knowledges like nuclear energy, nano, stem cells and military equipment.

Mentioning the country’s current water shortage problems, Rezazadeh said: “In the country's water sector, it is necessary to move towards the use of a diverse resources basket, such as the use of sewage, desalination of seawater, use of deep water, etc.”

“For example, the Persian Gulf coastal countries currently desalinize and use about 27 million cubic meters of seawater on a daily basis and have a plan to increase the figure up to 32 million cubic meters, but our country, having vast beaches in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, only desalinizes about 600,000 cubic meters of water,” he said.

Regarding the reason for the ending of dam construction in advanced countries and its continuation in Iran, he said: “They started building dams 70-80 years earlier than us and built dams in all suitable geographical positions, but despite the great number of dams in our country, we still need to build dams in some regions.”

“From 1900 to 1909, 545 dams were inaugurated in the world, and the figure reached 7,511 in the 70s,” he added.

About 32 percent of the world’s dams are located in North America, 30 percent in Asia, 19 percent in Europe, five percent in Africa, three percent in South America, and two percent in Australia, according to the official.

Iran’s total dam reservoirs currently stand at 50.5 billion cubic meters, according to the Energy Ministry data.

Out of a total of 183 currently operational dams across Iran, 52 are related to the Caspian Sea catchment area, 12 are based in the Urmia 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