January 17-2014
. . . 10 to 15 years
Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian last Wednesday said the tripling of agricultural lands around Lake Urumiyeh and the consequent need for vast quantities of irrigation water was the chief reason the lake is drying up.
“We need 10 to 15 years to be able to return Lake Urumiyeh to its previous situation and any slogan and propagandistic or political promise which is devoid of reality is treason against the lake and the people,” Chitchian told a meeting of Majlis deputies from East Azerbaijan province.
Chitchian said his ministry will use all its efforts to save the lake. However, he warned that if the water for agriculture is not better managed, the lake “will never be revived.”
The ministry will consider different options including transferring water from rivers such as the Aras, which Iran shares with Azerbaijan. Such a transfer was the policy adopted by the Ahmadi-nejad Administration. But now Chitchian says that is but one option the government is looking at.
He said the government would seek the advice of Iranian and foreign experts, including Chinese and French experts, for revitalizing the dying lake.
“But if we cannot manage the use of water in agriculture, Lake Urumiyeh will never be revived,” he warned, putting the burden on the region’s farmers.
The minister blamed overuse of waters flowing into the lake in recent years as the most important cause of the lake’s dramatic shrinkage, saying previously only 150,000 hectares of land around the lake were under cultivation but now that has more than tripled to 480,000 hectares.
The addition of 330,000 hectares of land under cultivation requires 3.1 billion cubic meters of additional water, he said.
He also faulted global warming, reduced rainfall, and an increase in non-agricultural water consumption in villages and cities as additional reasons for the lake drying up.