31 Aug 2017
Water-Food Nexus // Safe Use of Wastewater in Agriculture: A Workshop on Policy and Implementation for Iran
By Hiroshan Hettiarachchi, Reza Ardakanian, UNU-FLORES. Workshop proceedings. Growing population, decreasing rainfall, increased extraction of both surface and groundwater resources, and adoption of development-oriented approaches have impeded water supply for domestic, industrial, and agricultural sectors in Iran. To make matters worse, contamination of water resources, through sewage, for instance, has deterred the supply of clean water. Safe use of waste water can be a practical solution to alleviate some of these issues.
In Iran, the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company (NWWEC) is the lead government entity responsible for managing water and wastewater. They are keen on introducing modern methods of wastewater reuse. Some of the projects managed by NWWEC to provide water for several cities in the Central Plateau actively utilise wastewater in both industrial and agricultural sectors. They are also keen to expand their applications of safe use of wastewater. However, there are numerous hurdles to overcome in expanding such solutions to other parts of the country. This situation triggered the invitation from Iran to UNU-FLORES to join forces in order to organise this workshop.