Iranian President pleased with revival of Urmia Lake as great historical job

By Trend

President Hassan Rouhani said on Thursday that he was pleased with the efforts made by the Government to revive the Urmia Lake, terming it a great historical job, Trend reports citing IRNA.

He made the remarks at a virtual inauguration ceremony of 26 power and drinking water projects in four provinces.

President Rouhani expressed hope that Iran would celebrated revival of Urmia Lake by the early days of the Iranian New year, 1400, to start on March 21, 2021.

The provincial environment officials hoped that the lake would reach its ecological level by 2025.

Life of people in northwest of the country depends on Urmia Lake, the President said, highlighting the efforts made for its revival.

Kani Sib Dam in West Azarbaijan Province is among the projects the President opened this morning.

The project aims to pipe water to Urmia Lake to help its survival.

In a coordinated effort to save the lake in 2013, Iran started a joint project with the UN Development Program (UNDP) funded jointly by the Iranian and the Japanese governments. The revival efforts therefore focused on redirecting rivers to irrigate farmland, thus avoiding use of water from the lake, and the promotion of more sustainable farming methods.

Urmia Lake began shrinking in the mid-2000s due to decades of longstanding drought spells and elevated hot summer temperatures. According to international statistics, the lake lost about 80% of its waterbed by 2015.