The project to transfer water from Kanisib Dam to Urmia Lake via a tunnel is near completion and will be launched in February 2023.
Costing more than $75 million, the project includes a 36-km tunnel and a 17-km canal to channel water from Zab River along the western borders to the troubled Urmia Lake in the northwest, Mehr News Agency reported.
The project was to be launched sooner, but due to the appearance of cracks in the tunnel, it was postponed to fix the cracks. With the completion of the repair programs, now the tunnel is ready to take water.
Currently, the level of water in Urmia Lake has reached 1,270 meters, its lowest in the last 30 years. The lake now has about 1.17 billion cubic meters of water.
This time last year, the level of water in the lake was 1,270 meters and amounted to 2.46 billion cubic meters.
When the tunnel becomes operational, 300 million cubic meters of water will be transferred from Kanisib Dam, located near the border with Iraq, to the lake in the first phase, the governor of West Azarbaijan Province said.
“The tunnel has the capacity to transfer 1.5 billion cubic meters of water per year,” Mohammad Sadeq Motamedian added.
Once the second-largest saltwater lake in the Middle East, the lake attracted birds and bathers to bask in its turquoise waters in northwest Iran. However, nearly three decades of drought have shriveled the basin, shrinking it by a shocking 90%.
Environmental advocates have warned about the deteriorating condition of Urmia Lake, a large salt lake that has shrunk in size because of repeated spells of drought, damming and unrestrained groundwater pumping in surrounding areas. The drying up of Urmia Lake has also caused major dust storms in Iran in recent years.
The tunnel is only part of a plan to restore the lake. Other measures have been taken to help replenish the lake, including the efficient management of surface and underground water in the lake’s vicinity, sealing of over 4,000 illegal wells near the region and promoting sustainable farming on 6,000 hectares.
Treated Wastewater
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, will be completed by the end of the current Iranian year (March 2023) and 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.
