Water transfer from Lake Van in Turkey to the troubled Urmia Lake is not a practical option yet, said Masoud Baqerzadeh Karimi, deputy for wetlands affairs at the Department of Environment.
The explanation was in response to the recent claim by Hadi Bahadori, an Orumiyeh representative in parliament, about preparation to start the project, ISNA reported.
The lawmaker, a former member of Urmia Lake Restoration Project, had earlier said the required studies on the quality of Lake Van's water have been carried out at the University of Maragheh in East Azarbaijan Province, Urmia University in West Azarbaijan and the University of Tehran in the capital.
He said this is the right time to use Lake Van as a savior of Urmia. Karimi, however, noted that although inter-basin water transfer from neighboring countries has long been proposed as a potential option, Lake Van has never been officially considered a source.
"Even in that case, feasibility of the project should be first evaluated comprehensively," he said.
There are numerous scenarios in line with the revival of the lake, including water transfer from Lake Van in Turkey, the Caspian Sea, Lake Sevan in Armenia and even the Aras river flowing through Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran, but none is operational until biological and geographical studies are carried out, the official emphasized.
Question of Cost
Besides, experts maintain that the final cost of the water transfer projects will be so high that focusing on domestic sources seems more viable.
Earlier in 2016, Isa Kalantari, the DOE chief who also heads ULRP, had said feasibility studies had started and that "Turkey is willing to help us out."
He said salinity and acidity of the waters have been examined and the project can be implemented once biological studies indicate its possibility. Amid all conflicting comments, Masoud Tajrishi, ULRP's deputy for planning, said carrying out studies does not necessarily mean that the project is going to be implemented.
The idea was most probably raised once again following the First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri's visit to the lake in early April where he vaguely pointed to the use of foreign resources, which has apparently been interpreted as a go-ahead to transfer projects. He said on his trip that the restoration of the embattled lake is a high priority for the government, which cannot be removed from the agenda.
He gave assurances that the government would work to secure billions of dollars in foreign finance to revive Urmia Lake, for the livelihood of a large population that directly and indirectly depends on it.
Located between the provinces of East and West Azarbaijan, Urmia Lake has been facing a serious drought for years. Its depletion is due to climate change, a long dry spell, unrestrained damming and excessive water use, especially in the agriculture sector.
The volume of water in the lake has more than doubled since President Hassan Rouhani launched the Urmia Lake Restoration Program. However, the extreme lack of rainfall and a tight budget have prevented ULRP from achieving its targets.
Revival Measures
Among the compensatory efforts taken to restore the shrinking lake has been specifying an amount of water to be released from the surrounding dams.
From late February to late March, dams have fed the lake with some 250 million cubic meters of water, said Farhad Sarkhosh, head of provincial office of ULRP, IRNA reported.
"According to plan, another 285 mcm is going to be transferred to the lake from dams in West Azarbaijan Province in the coming months."
The current water level in the lake stands at 1,270.74 meters, which is almost 70 cm higher than the lowest record.
As Sarkhosh said, the figures show a promising progress toward the target. Dredging nearby rivers, transferring treated wastewater from neighboring big cities such as Tabriz and Orumiyeh, organizing upstream waters, blockage of over 1,200 illegal water wells and modification of irrigation systems in over 6,200 hectares of farmlands in the region are among the measure so far adopted to rescue the lake.
