Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.27
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Water level in Iran's Lake Urmia, which is experiencing its worst drought in many years, has increased by 29 centimeters thanks to recent rainfall.
Morteza Mousavi, the director general of the bureau for Lake Urmia water resources management, said thanks to more than 117 millimeters of rain during the previous calendar month of Mehr (September 23-October 22), the level of water in Lake Urmia is rising, Iran's IRIB reported on Oct. 27.
The level of water in Lake Urmia increased to 1270.44 meters on Oct.22, he noted.
It is hoped that Lake Urmia's water level would reach its ecologic level of 1274.1 meters through improving irrigation methods and implementing water transfer plans by 2023, he said.
Lake Urmia is in northwest Iran. Over 70 percent of its water has dried up. The level has been declining since 1995.
The situation over the Lake Urmia has been widely debated by the Iranian officials and experts.
Kioumars Daneshjou, head of the Water Resources Department of West Azerbaijan province said on Sept. 8 that the administration allocated 3.7 billion rials (about $139 million based on official rate of 26,600 rials per each USD) to implement projects aimed at revival of Lake Urmia for current fiscal year started on March 21.
He added that the allocated money will be used to finance an 18-article reviving plan by the energy ministry.
Daneshjou went on to add that the revival plan includes steps such as dredging the rivers flowing into the lake, water transfer from other catchments, management of groundwater resources as well as promoting optimal and efficient water consumption.
Meanwhile, Iran's Environmental Protection Organization, Masoumeh Ebtekar has said that the Organization does not agree with the plan of transferring water from Caspian Sea or Aras River to Lake Urmia, saying these plans are unprofessional due to economic and environmental factors.
Commenting on the issue, Iranian environmentalist, Professor Esmail Kahrom said it is very difficult, because Caspian Sea is in the lower plain, and not on the same level as Lake Urmia.
He said the altitude of Caspian Sea in some areas is about 21 meters below the level of the sea waters and oceans, but the Lake Urmia is almost 850 meters above the Caspian Sea, therefore Iran has to spend more money and energy to transfer the water.
Officials have said if the current restoration efforts are not effective, the lake will be turned into a swamp within four 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 Lake Urmia.