A long-delayed 40-km tunnel to divert water from Kanisib Dam in Piranshahr, West Azarbaijan Province, to Urmia Lake started to flow on Saturday, the project manager said.
“The scheme to divert water from Zab River, along the distressed lake in the northwest, is part of measures to help restore the once largest saltwater lake in the Middle East,” Ali Asghari was also quoted as saying by the Energy Ministry’s news portal.
The project comprised a dam (Kanisib) and the excavation of a 17-km canal and a 40-km tunnel.
“The initiative was slated to launch in 2022, but deep cracks appeared on the walls and ceiling of the structure, following which domestic and foreign startups teamed up to repair the damage to revive the troubled lake,” he added.
The official noted that the tunnel was filled with water much earlier than scheduled and its walls cracked due to technical defects.
“The National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran started work on the project in 2015. It spent $200 million borrowed from the National Development Fund of Iran, the country's sovereign wealth fund,” he said.
According to Asghari, 500 million cubic meters of water will be pumped annually from the river to the dam and then transferred to the lake through the tunnel and canal.
Referring to international water rights, he said 50% of Zab River waters belong to Iran and "we can use it as we want”.
The Tigris River Basin has several sub-basins shared by Iran, Iraq and Turkey. The main shared tributaries are the Great Zab, an approximately 400-kilometer-long river flowing through Turkey and Iraq, and the Little Zab that originates in Iran and joins the Tigris in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
Deplorable Condition
According to Mohammad Darvish, an environment and water expert, the lake is in its most deplorable condition and the impending disintegration of the lake’s unique ecosystem requires immediate attention to prevent its catastrophic socio-ecological repercussions.
“Despite the rise in precipitation in most catchment areas, Urmia Lake Basin’s snow cover has decreased by 50%, falling from 85,000 square km to less than 43,000 square km,” he said, noting that it is very likely that the lake will become completely dry in summer.
“As long as the lake is deprived of its water share [7 bcm per year], there will be no hope to save the inland body of water. The area of Urmia Lake has dwindled by 300 square kilometers to 3,000 sq. km,” he said.
“The drought, which is unprecedented in the past 50 years, has led to a 50% reduction in water inflow from dams into the lake that is Iran’s largest inland body of water.”
Plans are also underway to annually supply 105 mcm of treated wastewater from nearby cities like Tabriz and Urmia to the lake.
Transferring reclaimed wastewater to the lake is a practical solution without environmental costs, which can help revive the troubled inland water body.
With a total investment of $100 million, the West Azarbaijan Water and Wastewater Company is building several treatment plants in cities located in the lake's catchment areas.
The construction of the second phase of the wastewater treatment plant in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan Province, slated for completion by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2023), will help raise the annual inflow of treated wastewater to Urmia Lake by 125%, as it will transfer 75 million cubic meters of reclaimed sewage to the lake per year.
The scheme will collect and reclaim sewage produced by at least 1 million people in Tabriz and the output will be directly transferred to the lake.
Tabriz is a big city (population 1.6 million) and produces a huge amount of wastewater, the treatment of which could feed the lake despite its long distance from the lake. Close to 70% of Tabriz's urban areas are connected to the wastewater system.
An estimated 60 mcm of reclaimed wastewater enter Urmia Lake every year, part of which is from treatment plants in Naqadeh, Urmia, Mahabad, Miandoab, Salmas and Boukan in the northwestern province.
