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Hydraulic Infrastructures, Dams, and Power Generation
 An extremely successful program, on a national scale, has been in operation in recent years
to develop Iran’s hydraulic infrastructures and tap its vast hydropower generation
capacity. To this end, 42 large as well as numerous small and medium-size dams have been
built in various parts of the country over the last several years. Currently, the Ministry
of Energy has 68 large and medium-size dams under construction, and five to seven dams
come on stream each year. An outstanding example is the Shahid Rejaee Dam. Built entirely
by the Iranian private sector, it stands 138 meters high, 427 meters across the crest
length, and with a gross reservoir capacity of 191.5 million cubic meters. These great
achievements are reflected in official statistics published by the International
Commission on Large Dams which rank Iran third and fourth among builders of dams of 100
and 60 meters in height, respectively.
 Moreover, in 1995 alone, over 40 water delivery projects came on stream and 95 urban sewerage
projects were under construction. Also, numerous small and large irrigation and drainage
networks have been built in all parts of the country , serving millions of hectares of
farmlands . The nation’s power generation capacity has climbed from 13000 megawatts
to over 23000 megawatts. The per capita electricity consumption, which stood at 554 kw in
1973 , rose to 1306 kw in 1993. Investments in new power plants and transmission networks,
between 1989 and 1993, totaled over US$6.6 billion.
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