Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.7
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian says the importation of water from other countries is on the agenda.
Transferring water from seas and importing water from other countries are being studied, Iran's Mehr news agency quoted Chitchian as saying on September 7.
The drinking water problem in different cities of Iran has reached the crisis level. The Iranian government is seeking new resources and intends to implement a number of projects for irrigation and for the population's water consumption, and thus to solve the water shortage problem.
The projects on transporting water from the Caspian Sea and the Gulf of Oman to the country's central part can be seen as an example of this.
Earlier, one of the officials of the Iranian Khorasan Province, Mohammad Reza Mohsin proposed to construct a water pipeline from the Lake Sarez in Tajikistan to the Khorasan Province, according to Iranian ISNA news agency.
The water pipeline from the Lake Sarez, which was formed as a result of an earthquake in eastern Tajikistan in 1911, will be 600 kilometers in length.
A similar proposal was also put forward from the Tajik side. A representative of the Energy Ministry of Tajikistan earlier said a hydroelectric power plant will be built in the southern part of the Lake Sarez, and the water from the lake can be transported to Iran via this power plant.