Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.14
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran has finished preliminary studies for transferring water from the Caspian Sea to inland, Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian deputy energy minister Sattar Mahmoudi as saying on December 14.
"Some 200 million cubic meters of water is projected to be transferred per year to the central parts of the country for drinking and industrial purposes," Mahmoudi said.
"Iran will start operations to transfer water from the Caspian Sea to the central parts of the country in the near future," former Energy Minister Majid Namjou said in April.
"The required budget, which is about 20 trillion rials (about $800 million), has been provided," he said.
He added that the project will be completed by March 2016.
In October 2012, the Iranian energy ministry received the permission to transfer water from the Caspian Sea to the central parts of the country.
"Meanwhile, transferring water from the Caspian Sea to the central desert of Iran will lead to an ecological disaster," Iran's environment protection organization official Abdolreza Karbasi sad in October.
"Water desalination systems will add 32 million tons of salt to the Caspian Sea water per year, which is a disaster for the ecology of the sea," he added.
Currently, the Caspian Sea water holds 13 grams of salt per liter of water.
"If 250 million cubic meters of water is transferred annually to Semnan, some 32 million tons of salt will be added to the sea," he explained.