The site of Waste Water Treatment Plant of Tehran

“A case of non-conformity with law”

The ratified bill dated Dec.1986, states in section 4 and its subsection B that in choosing the site of Tehran’s above mentioned Plant:  a) all aspects of technical and environmental factors should be considered. b) Building of any kind and sort must be avoided within the six-kilometer peripheral limit of the Plant c) creation of a green belt around the Plant is mandatory.

 In 2002 three members of Earth Watchers Center, then members of another environmental NGO, looked into the unlawful site of the Tehran’s Plant. They visited the Plant and its surrounding villages and wrote a report about the problems it had created for the inhabitants in the “Cry Of Earth” publication and included the letter of complaint written by the inhabitants of Alliman village.

 Because at present, the detailed “Master plan” of Tehran and its 24 zones are again under review, the members of Earth Watchers Center decided to follow up their previous case study of the Plant. After almost two years, not only any of the people’s complaints and problems are not alleviated but grown in magnitude. As though the people of Alliman village and its surrounding area are the culprit who should be punished for the mismanagement of Tehran’s Waste Water Treatment Plant Board of Directors.

 Geographic site of the Plant:  The site of this Plant is located on a large plot of 110 hectares on the Tehran’s southern beltway leading to the city of Ray, which is on the farming and agricultural lands of Alliman and its surrounding villages.

  Physical aspects of the Plant: Close to the location of the plant is the Alliman Fort with a population of 50 families. Two uncovered canals, which are large and deep, pass by about two meters from the fort’s wall. Two shanty and narrow bridges over the canals connects the fort to the other side. The sides of the canals are littered with piles of unsanitary garbage. In Tehran’s heavy raining seasons the water overflows the banks of the canals and creates emergency situation. Children play around the canals and sometimes fall in them, they also collect all sorts of plastics from the garbage piles and the canals to sell them to the factories. Due to these environmental hazards and lack of proper sanitation people suffer from skin and gastrointestinal diseases.

  History 0f Tehran’s Waste Water Treatment Plant:  Forty- five years ago, in1957, the decision was made to build such a plant. In the sixties the acquisition of land from the farmers was completed and in the seventies the building phase started with a slow pace. After the revolution, in 1997, finally a sewage and water purification company was formed and a loan from the World Bank paved the way for the construction of the plant. The advancement of construction was slow and.

    Now in 2004 the Plant with its walled in area, two-story administration building, eight reservoirs, large cement pipes to carry the sewage to the reservoirs and a canal to carry the exit waste water outside the Plant and from there through open canals to the agricultural lands, does not process the sewage properly. After the sedimentation process of human waste no other due processes of recycling and water treatment takes place.

   It should be noted that the sewage of Tehran, a mega city with around 10million population, will be directed to this area while the present capacity of the Plant with all its shortcomings is %10 of the its planned capacity. The environmental hazards for the cities of Ray and ”Varamin” will be immense, at the same time people of Alliman are desperate and calling for help. They want to be “relocated”.

   The Present Situation:  The Ministry of Energy defends the site and location of the Plant, claims that the exit water irrigating the farms is clean and safe while simultaneously claiming that the lands surrounding the Plant is not fertile agricultural land, it also claims that the Plant has not caused any health hazards and problems, and is not located in the city limit of Tehran and its green belt. These claims are not based on actual proven facts. Even the Environmental Protection Agency, the mayor of the area and the inhabitants refute these claims.

  The inhabitants of the city of Ray want to know why with the rapid expansion of this city the completion of the Plant is continued, and when will the Plant be moved to its new site as it was planned in the second phase of the construction plan, and finally what steps will be taken to cover up the traditional unsanitary water canals and the open sewage canals.

   Earth Watchers Center questions the total disregard for the justified wishes of the people by Energy ministry, the Waste Water Treatment Company and the Environmental Protection Agency and asks why in the past one and a half year no step has been taken to alleviate the problems and have only offered unjustified excuses? Along with the with people who live by the open sewage canals EWC asks the canals to be covered as soon as possible and the Plant be rapidly relocated.

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