Jalil Rezaian, Managing-Director of Water Affairs for Southern Provinces, told a press conference that 20 projects, costing more than 1,300 billion rials, are to come on stream. The projects will irrigate 200 square kilometers of farmland and supply water to 2.4 million people in Fars, Bushehr and Kohgiluyeh Boyer Ahmad provinces. "Construction of the eight dams will supply water to three million people and 200,000 ha of agricultural land by 2021," Rezaian said. He said that water tables account for water consumption in Fars province, adding: "Implementation of Kowsar and Salman Farsi dams will be of help under the 20-year strategic plans." Rezaian said Kowsar Dam will come online in two years. The official noted that the government's budget allocation does not meet the requirements for dam construction. "We have also Molla Sadra Dam under construction in north of Fars Province. An Iranian-Chinese consortium will build the dam under a finance deal." "China will also help install two hydro-electric power plant to generate one hundred Megawatt of energy," he said. Rezaian also said that 10 dam projects with a total capacity of 2.5 billion cubic meters are under studies in south of Iran. He expressed hope that credit allocation for two of the ten dams would be ready next year. "Under the present circumstances, we prefer to earmark our financial resources for half-finished projects and we hope that the private sector would help us," he said. PIN/IRAN NEWS