to transfer water from the Aras River to replenish shrinking Lake Urumiyeh.
The state news agency said a meeting was held recently between officials of West Azer-baijan province and a large Turkish investment firm at which the Turkish firm said it would sign an agreement to carry out the project. The news report failed, however, to name the Turkish company.
Last summer saw numerous protests in cities around Lake Urumiyeh to protest the government’s failure to respond to the shrinkage of the lake. The body of water is a major salt lake, and the shrinkage is leading to greater concentration of salt and consequent death.
Most analysts blame the shrinkage on the government’s construction of dams along the rivers that previously fed the lake. The dams now divert water for irrigation.
After last year’s protests, the cabinet announced last September that it had allocated $900 million to be used to restore the lake. Later, officials said the plan was to divert 600 million cubic meters of water—presumably annually—from the Aras River, which forms the boundary of Iran and Azerbaijan, over the mountains to Lake Urumiyeh.
Azerbaijani officials complained that Iran never talked to Azerbaijan about that plan before announcing it. Iran responded that half the water in the river belongs to Iran and Azerbaijan has no say in what Iran does with it.