TEHRAN -- President Ebrahim Raisi on Friday inaugurated a major project to transfer water to Lake Urmia amid hopes that the plan could ease environmental concerns about drying up of the lake in northwestern Iran.
Raeisi arrived in the city of Urmia, the provincial capital of West Azarbaijan, on Friday morning and launched the project.
“The restoration of Lake Urmia is a national concern, and the water transfer project is the most important plan in this regard,” he said during the opening ceremony, emphasizing that efforts aimed at revival of the shrinking body of water must continue seriously.
The Iranian president also appreciated diligent efforts made by all engineers and contraction workers to implement the project in a timely and technical manner.
The transfer system includes nearly 36 kilometers of tunnels and 11 kilometers of canals that would transfer 300 million cubic meters of water from Kani Sib reservoir dam to Lake Urmia per annum in the first phase.
Raisi said his administration is determined to restore Lake Urmia, stating that all administrative and executive bodies, especially the ministry of energy, worked cooperatively to complete the large-scale project.
During the second phase, a total of 600 million cubic meters of water will be transferred from Kani Sib reservoir dam to Naqadeh plain and Lake Urmia basin every year.
The construction of the water transfer project, known as the biggest environmental project in the West Asia, started back in 2015 but its completion had been delayed.
President Raisi also inaugurated another project, via videoconference, to transfer water from Shahid Kazemi dam to Lake Urmia.
The dam will reportedly supply a total of 300 million cubic meters of water to the endangered lake per annum.