Iran

Iran’s water market is domestic. The Ministry of Energy sets policy and buys desalinated water from privately operated plants on long-term contracts; in August 2022, 95 plants totalled 634,000 cubic metres a day.¹ Dams and transfer tunnels are state-funded works let to Iranian contractors, and the Gulf transfer lines are financed with equity from industrial companies, with the National Development Fund paying for parts of the Hope line.² The register tracks 40 schemes, US$ 22.1 bn of their disclosed value in projects not yet operating.³ The pipeline is large, but access for foreign firms is the limit: the ministry invited foreign investors to co-finance projects in July 2025,⁴ yet no open tender, pre-qualification portal or standard concession was found. United States sanctions engage any US person in the chain,⁵ and UN and EU measures were re-imposed in September 2025.⁶

The commercial picture in Iran: the scale of the economy and the water sector, the investment climate, and where the near-term activity is concentrated.

The bodies that commission, regulate and operate water infrastructure in Iran. In Iran the Ministry of Energy sets water-sector policy and buys desalinated water from privately operated plants on long-term contracts;¹ provincial water and wastewater companies run the urban networks; and tariffs are set nationally by the government on the ministry’s proposal.⁸

• Ministry of Agriculture-JahadMinistry
• Ministry of Energy (water & wastewater affairs)Ministry
• National Water & Wastewater Engineering Co. (Abfa)Utility
• Provincial Water & Wastewater Companies (Abfa)Utility
• Department of EnvironmentEnvironment
• Iran Water Resources Management Co.Resources holding company

The framework in Iran is Emerging, the schemes we track carry US$ 26.0 bn of disclosed value, US$ 22.1 bn of it in projects not yet operating, and the funders most active in the sector are Domestic finance, National Development Fund.

In Iran, the dams and transfer tunnels in the register are state-funded works let to Iranian contractors; seawater desalination is bought from privately operated build-own-operate plants (NVCo at Bushehr and Chabahar, Shaya at Bandar Abbas) on long-term contracts with the Energy Ministry;¹ and the Gulf transfer lines are financed with equity from industrial companies. The Finance & Economics hub sets out each model and where it has been used.

The projects register gives a partial view. Of the 40 tracked schemes in Iran, 2 name a concession or independent-producer structure in the finance note; the rest record only where the money came from, which is not the same as saying they were not concessions.

No open procurement route for foreign bidders was found. The Energy Ministry has invited local and foreign investors to co-finance water and energy projects through public-private partnerships (July 2025),⁴ but no open tender, pre-qualification portal or standard concession was found, and United States sanctions apply to any US person in the chain (see below). A domestic offtake market does exist: most Iranian desalination plants are operated by the private sector and sell their water to the Energy Ministry through long-term contracts. In August 2022, 95 plants totalled 634,000 cubic metres a day, 75 of them operating, and the reported average production cost in the year to 20 March 2022 was about 98,000 rials a cubic metre, reimbursed by the government.¹

European Union and United Nations: after the snapback procedure, UN Security Council sanctions on Iran were re-imposed at the end of September 2025, and the EU reimposed its nuclear-related restrictive measures on 29 September 2025 (Council Decision (CFSP) 2025/1972).⁶ Nothing here is legal advice.

Institutional picture simplified; conditions vary by province.

Tracked schemes in Iran, largest first. Each has its own page with the parties, the finance and a dated history.

40 tracked in total. The full set, filterable, is in the major projects register.

Contracts on record in Iran, from the awards log and the major projects register, dated by commissioning where known.

Repeat winners

• Farab8 tracked awards, 1 as developer, 7 as contractor
• Degremont4 tracked awards, as contractor
• Machine Sazi Vijeh2 tracked awards, 1 as developer, 1 as contractor
• NVCo2 tracked awards, as developer
• Payab Kousar2 tracked awards, as contractor
• Tablieh2 tracked awards, as contractor

Structured procurements and live tenders in Iran, drawn from the same review that maintains the pipeline tracker.

Pipeline & awards

Tenders

What households pay

The 1404 budget law (Iranian year March 2025 to March 2026) requires the provincial water and wastewater companies to collect, on top of the water charge, IRR 2,000/m³ of drinking water sold up to the household consumption standard, or up to contracted capacity for non-household users, and IRR 4,000/m³ above those thresholds, paid to the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company; the 1405 budget was not checked. The tariff itself is issued nationally: the Cabinet set water and sewerage subscription charges on the Ministry of Energy’s proposal in January 2025, and the household consumption standard varies by province. Desalination production cost was reported at about IRR 98,000/m³ (over US$0.35, the source’s own conversion) for the Iranian year ending 20 March 2022.

Residential tariffs, and the cost of supply where a utility publishes it, are kept in one place for the whole region so the comparison holds: a tariff means little without the cost it is measured against.

No dated items have been carried forward for Iran yet. This section fills from the monthly briefings as they are published.