TEHRAN –The amount of precipitation in Lake Urmia basin has decreased by 40 percent in the long term.

Lake Urmia in the northwestern West Azarbaijan province started to dry up in the 2000s. The lake is the largest lake in West Asia and the sixth-largest Salt Lake in the world with a water surface area of 5,000 to 6,000 square kilometers.

Despite the meteorological forecasts of above-normal rainfall in the current water year, there has been a 2.4 percent decrease in rainfall compared to last year and a 40 percent decrease in the long term, IRIB quoted Mohammad-Sadeq Motamedian, the governor-general of West Azarbaijan province and the secretary of the national working group for Lake Urmia restoration, as saying.

Referring to the fact that the water level of Lake Urmia has decreased by 14 cm compared to last year, Motamedian added the current area of Lake Urmia is 686 square kilometers, and its water supply has reached 930 million cubic meters from 1.2 billion cubic meters last year.

Water transport project

The lake’s restoration program was established in 2013 and aims to restore the lake within a 10-year program.

The Kanisib tunnel is the most important structure for transferring water to Lake Urmia to prevent it from drying out.

On February 24, the first phase of a national project to transfer water from the Kanisib Dam to Lake Urmia, northwestern West Azarbaijan province, came on stream.

The construction of a tunnel with a length of 36 kilometers to transfer water from the Kanisib Dam to Lake Urmia started in 2015, IRNA reported.

Some 35 trillion rials (about $77 million) have been spent on the project.

In the first phase, 300 million cubic meters of water are projected to enter Lake Urmia every year.

The second phase that is going to come on stream in the current Iranian calendar year (starting March 21) will increase the volume of water to 600 million cubic meters.

The wastewater treatment plant of the city of Urmia, as the second project aimed at reviving Lake Urmia, will come on stream in the near future.

Once the project is inaugurated, 51 million cubic meters of treated wastewater will be transferred to Lake Urmia, Motamedian said, IRIB reported.

This important project started in the calendar year 1394 (March 2015-March 2016) but stopped in the year 1399 (March 2020-March 2021) due to financial problems, he explained.

Some 5 trillion rials (about $10 million) have been recently earmarked for speeding up the implementation of the Lake Urmia revival plan.

Finland ready to help Lake Urmia revival

Finland's ambassador to Iran, Kari Kahiluoto, has announced his country’s readiness to cooperate in the restoration of Lake Urmia.

In November, he said that Finland is willing to expand its long-term cooperation with Iran in the fields of water, energy, and waste management.

Water transfer from Lake Van to Lake Urmia

Research and academic studies are being carried out on transferring water from Lake Van in Turkey to help revive Lake Urmia which has been drying up in recent years, MP Mohammad–Reza Mirtajeddini said in September.

"Four universities have conducted scientific studies and research to transfer water from Lake Van to Lake Urmia which are 160 kilometers away from each other,” Mirtajeddini pointed out.

Moreover, "Within the past two months, several meetings have been held in the parliament discussing the situation of Lake Urmia. The first vice president, the head, and the secretary of the Lake Urmia restoration headquarters were following up on the work. Most of the hardware projects have been done out of all the plans and proposals.”

Lake Urmia restoration headquarters needs 23,000 billion rials (about $46,000) this year, part of which has been paid out and the rest will be allocated, the MP added.

To implement the restoration projects, water is needed. Due to the low rainfall in the past, water was not released from the KaniSib dam.

Wetlands of International Importance

The lake is designated for the List of Wetlands of International Importance, Ramsar Site, as well as a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, which is a protected area with the aim of conserving nature and culture in the region and community development.

In September, Claudio Providas, the UNDP resident representative in Iran, said that sanctions have had no effect on providing financial support to protect Iran's wetlands and revive Lake Urmia, in particular.

Providas pointed out that the Japanese government, as the financial sponsor of the project, continues to provide aid.

“Over the past 10 years, Japan has made generous contributions to the global plan to protect Iran's wetlands and has contributed one million dollars annually, which is quite acceptable,” he said.

He continued: “In the last 5 years, Iran has tried different strategies to save Lake Urmia and has been trying to find out whether it should follow the same previous methods to restore the lake or it needs to try out new solutions.”

“During the last decade, the financial aid of the Japanese government has protected Iran's wetlands and this plan has had some achievements. However, it should be noted that Japan's aid by itself was not expected to save Iran's wetlands or even Lake Urmia,” he added.

Providas went on to say optimizing water consumption in the agricultural sector and promoting smart farming plays a key role in supplying the water needed to restore Lake Urmia.

MT/MG