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Some 176mcm of water will be released into Iran’s Lake Urmia

Business Materials 10 January 2015 20:53 (UTC +04:00)
Some 176 million cubic meters of water will be released into Iran’s Lake Urmia over the next three months.
Some 176mcm of water will be released into Iran’s Lake Urmia

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7

By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Some 176 million cubic meters of water will be released into Iran's Lake Urmia over the next three months.

Morteza Mousavi, the director general of the bureau for Lake Urmia water resources management, said that the decision has been made to help the dying lake revive its normal situation, Iran's IRNA news agency reported Jan. 7.

Precipitations into the lake's catchment area hit 164 millimeters, showing an 80 percent rise year on year, he noted.

Currently, 626 million cubic meters of water is reserved in the lake's catchment area, compared to 544 mcm last year, he added.

Lake Urmia is in north-west of Iran. Over 70 percent of its water has dried up. The level has been declining since 1995.

The Iranian administration has approved having $225 million allocated for the implementation of a plan to restore the lake.

Officials have said if the current restoration efforts are not effective, the lake will be turned into a swamp within several years. Previous reports said Lake Urmia needs 3.1 billion cubic meters of water per year to survive.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has established a working group to tackle the issue of saving the lake.

Edited by CN

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