The project to divert water from Zab River, along the distressed Urmia Lake in the northwest, is expected to come on stream in summer, the Urmia Lake Restoration Project manager and director of Planning Office said.
“The scheme is part of measures to help restore the once largest saltwater lake in the Middle East,” Masoud Tajrishi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The project comprised a dam (Kani Sib in Piranshahr, West Azarbaijan Province) and excavation of a 17-km canal and a 37-km tunnel. The venture has registered 98% progress.
“Close to 150 million cubic meters of water have been stored in Kani Sib Dam and are ready to be transferred to the lake. The initiative was supposed to be launched last December, but it was delayed due to technical hurdles,” he said.
“The National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran started work on the project in 2015. So far, it has spent $200 million borrowed from the National Development Fund of Iran, the country's sovereign wealth fund.”
According to the official, 600 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, Tajrishi said 50% of Zab 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 which originates in Iran and joins the Tigris in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.
