Iran Inaugurates Water Transfer System to Revive Drying Lake
The system, comprising a giant 35.7-km tunnel and an 11-km canal, is expected to transfer 300 million cubic meters (mcm) of water per year to the lake in the first phase and 600 mcm in the second, according to the website of the Iranian president's office.
The system will transfer water to Lake Urmia from the Kani Sib Dam, some 60 km South of the lake.
Lake Urmia used to be Iran's largest inland body of water about 20 years ago, but it began drying up in the mid-2000s. According to international statistics, the lake lost about 80 percent of its waterbed by 2015.
Several dams constructed near the lake have choked off the water supply from the nearby mountains, contributing to the depletion of the lake. The construction of a 15-km causeway between Urmia and East Azarbaijan Province's capital city Tabriz also made a severe impact on the reservoir.
According to experts, it would take about five years for the lake to take in some 3.4 billion cubic meters of water to return to ecological sustainability.
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