Tehran, Iran, May 19
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad - Trend:
Masoud Tajrishi, the current deputy chief of environment protection organization of Iran, said Tehran currently doesn't have plans to transfer water from Lake Van in Turkey to its northwestern Lake Urmia.
“Currently, there is no practical prospect (of transferring water from Turkey to Iran) and is merely a theory,” Tajrishi, who is also an official with Lake Urmia restoration program, told ILNA news agency on May 19.
He added that Turkey has indirectly shown willingness to transfer water from Van to Urmia but the feasibility of the project through various studies should be completed first.
Tajrishi said various studies have been carried out to transfer the water and help restore the Urmia Lake, but none has become operational yet.
Located between the provinces of East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan, the saltwater lake, one of the largest on the planet, is on the brink of a major environmental disaster due to its highly endangered ecosystem.
Lake Urmia is in the northwest of Iran. Over 70 percent of its area has dried up. The level has been declining since 1995. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani set up a working group for saving Lake Urmia. Its area is about 6,000 square kilometers. Lake Urmia needs 3.1 billion cubic meters of water per year to exist.
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