TEHRAN - The Iranian Energy Ministry has opened a $70 million water diversion project that increases water supply to the capital, Tehran.
Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi said on Sunday that water from the Taleqan Dam, located more than 140 kilometers to the northwest of Tehran, had reached treatment facilities in Karaj, a metropolis near the capital, which is responsible for a bulk of the water supplied to the city.  
Aliabadi said that the project has added 2,200 liters per second to the water supply in Tehran, a city with a total demand of 40,000 liters per second.
He said that more than 54 kilometers of the 62-kilometer pipeline project is complete, adding that pipe-laying will continue until water reaches treatment facilities near Tehran to add another 2,500 liters per second to the city’s supplies.
The minister said the project would provide water to nearly three million people, adding that total government spending for the project is around 70 trillion rials ($70 million).
Construction experts have described the water transfer project from Taleqan dam as one of the most complicated schemes ever launched and completed by the Iranian Energy Ministry.
Some 43,500 metric tons of 2,000-millimeter pipes have been supplied to the project over the past few months.
Tehran has been facing an increasing demand for water this summer amid record temperatures that reached over 40 degrees Celsius in many parts of the city in August.
The government said in July that the amount of water in reservoirs around Tehran had fallen by 50% compared to last summer, adding that the reduction was the result of a 41% drop in precipitation during wet months.