Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.12
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran has shelved a plan which was developed by the administration of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for transferring water from the Caspian Sea to inland, the Mehr News Agency reported on January 12.
The plan is just in the phase of study. Even the workshops which had been equipped to start the project have been closed down and no work will be implemented without environmental permissions, he explained.
In December 2013, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian deputy energy minister Sattar Mahmoudi as saying that Iran has finished preliminary studies for transferring water from the Caspian Sea to inland.
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, according to the official.
In April 2013, ex-Energy Minister Majid Namjou said that Iran will start operations to transfer water from the Caspian Sea to the central parts of the country in the near future.
The required budget, which is about 20 trillion rials (about $800 million), has been provided, he said, adding 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 central parts of the country.
Meanwhile, Iran's environment protection organization official Abdolreza Karbasi sad in October that transferring water from the Caspian Sea to the central desert of Iran will lead to an ecological disaster.
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.