Water transfer projects: beneficial or detrimental to environment?TEHRAN – Iran inaugurated the first phase of a major water desalination and ...
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network
TEHRAN – Iran inaugurated the first phase of a major water desalination and transfer project on Thursday aiming at alleviating and even meeting the urgent need of central arid areas for water, however, is it really beneficial, or is going to incur irreparable losses to the environment?
Some 163 trillion rials (about $3.88 billion) has been invested in the mentioned project which is being implemented by the Energy Ministry in collaboration with the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry.
The project is aimed at desalinating Persian Gulf water and transferring it to Hormozgan and Kerman provinces.
In the first phase of this project, 305 kilometers of pipelines, seven water pumping stations, and 10 electricity substations as well as 150 km of power transmission lines were designed and implemented in addition to constructing several balance tanks and storages.
A number of countries have made attempts to transfer water and have achieved benefits. However, redistribution of water resources is inevitably involved in changes in the ecological environment and endangering nature.
Changes are divided into two negative and positive impacts, including water supply in water-deficient areas, facilitating the water cycle, improving meteorological conditions in the recipient basins, mitigating ecological water shortage, repairing the damaged ecological system, and preserving the endangered wild fauna and flora.
The negative impacts include salinization and acidification of the donor basins, damage to the ecological environment of the donor basins, and both sides of the conveying channel system, an increase of water consumption in the recipient basins, and spread of diseases, etc.
https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/454352/Water-transfer-projects-beneficial-or-detrimental-to-environment
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- Transboundary Water Resources Management
- Transboundary water management