Mohammad Saber Baghekhani Pour, the Director General of Environment and Sustainable Development of Tehran Municipality, emphasized the importance of selecting suitable plant species for the capital's green spaces and pointed to the necessity of changing the method of water supply for green spaces. He said: "In the field of water management, we must move from exploiting underground resources to using recycled water and treated wastewater."
Targeting the use of 150 million cubic meters of wastewater
Baghekhani Pour noted that Tehran Municipality aims to use 150 million cubic meters of wastewater for irrigating green spaces. Although this goal has not yet been fully achieved, kilometers of piping and the construction of wastewater treatment plants have been carried out in cooperation with the Water and Wastewater Company.
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He also referred to the limitations of the Water and Wastewater Company in developing the necessary infrastructure and added: "Although the construction of wastewater treatment plants is the responsibility of this company, the municipality has also stepped in to assist in the development of these infrastructures." This action includes setting up a memorandum of understanding for the construction of at least two large wastewater treatment plants to enable the use of treated wastewater for irrigating green spaces.
Construction of local treatment plants for runoff treatment
Baghekhani Pour further pointed out the difference between wastewater treatment plants and local treatment plants for urban runoff. He explained that these facilities are not designed for wastewater treatment but rather for treating runoff that flows in urban channels and ditches. In this regard, Tehran Municipality has planned to construct 15 local treatment plants, of which about five to six have been put into operation.
He stated that the capacity of these treatment plants is more limited than that of large wastewater treatment facilities, saying: "Local treatment plants are smaller, and their water source is urban runoff." Baghekhani Pour emphasized that the municipality has planned to maximize the use of runoff and wastewater.
Finally, he referred to the municipality's plan to eliminate the use of well water and said: "This plan is being pursued with the development of the necessary infrastructure, the construction of treatment plants, and the utilization of urban runoff capacity to minimize the dependency of green space irrigation in Tehran on underground water resources."
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