January 17-2014
The Rohani Administration has shelved an Ahmadi-nejad Administration project for transferring water from the Caspian Sea to desert communities in the central parts of the country.
The manager of the project, Mohammad Rahbari, told the Mehr news agency Sunday that the energy minister had ordered all work halted. No reason was given, but many critics had said the project would cost too much money and was not environmentally sound.
The plan, announced in 2012 and approved last February, was aimed at piping 500 million cubic meters of water annually for use in desert zones.
In December, Mehr quoted Deputy Energy Minister Sattar Mahmudi as saying preliminary studies for transferring the water had been completed. That suggested something had happened in just the last few weeks to cause the Rohani Administration to kill the project.
Many projects and policies of the previous administration have been canceled in the 5 1/2 months since Rohani took office.
The project, which bore an estimated cost of $1.5 billion, involved desalinating Caspian Sea water so it could be used as drinking water and for irrigation. Semnan province, then Yazd and Kerman, were to get the water.
Similar to this plan, the government has also started a project to transfer water from the Persian Gulf to desert areas of southern Iran.
Water resources in Iran remain insufficient both in current and in future projections due to the low precipitation rate as well as the increasing population and urbanization. Iran’s rainfall is below the world average.
Iran has had many projects to move water over great distances. The Karun and Dez rivers have played an important role in inter-basin water transfer. The government says these projects do not disturb the water balance of the donor basin, but residents have complained loudly of low water levels.
Iran has transferred water among basins within its own borders for many years. But Iran has not held any consultations with the Caspian coastal states about moving water from that sea.
While other countries surrounding the Caspian border such as Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan draw attention to the unclear legal status of the Caspian Sea, ecologists have expressed their worries about the effect of the project on the ecological structure of the Caspian Sea, citing the example of the Aral Sea, which is largely dried up due to Soviet irrigation policies started in the 1950s.
Some say drawing 500 million cubic meters per year would hurt the Caspian, but others say this figure is too small.