Financial Tribune - Farmers in Sistan-Baluchestan, South Khorasan and Khrosan Razavi provinces consume 11 billion cubic meters of water a year. Experts say if the three regions cut water consumption by 3% a year, there will be no need to spend $4 billion to transfer seawater

T he plan to supply water from the Oman Sea in south Iran to three eastern provinces will begin in February, deputy director of Khorasan Razavi Regional Water Company said.

�An estimated 750 million cubic meters of fresh water will be supplied annually to Sistan-Baluchestan, South Khorasan and Khrosan Razavi provinces for drinking and industrial use,� ILNA quoted Alireza Taheri as saying.

Sistan-Baluchestan in the southeast will be the first to receive water and the other two provinces will get their share next year (beginning March 2020), he added.

The three provinces have been long suffering from acute water shortages. Environmentalists and experts say transferring water from the Gulf of Oman through pipelines to the parched and water-stressed regions is the best possible way to tackle the water crisis.

Complaining about the unusually huge amount of water wasted in the agro sector, Taheri said: �The world's average water consumption in farms is about 70%, while it is 87% in Khorasan Razavi Province�.