Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Iran will launch operations to transfer water from the Caspian Sea to the central parts of the country in the near future, IRIB quoted Iranian Energy Minister Majid Namjou as saying.

The required budget, which is about 20 trillion rials ($1.6 billion), has been provided, he added.

The project is due to be completed by March 2016.

In October 2012, the Iranian Energy Ministry received the permission to transfer water from the Caspian to central parts of the country.

In April 2012, Iran launched the Caspian Sea Water Transfer Project to examine the possibility of desalinating water from the basin, an idea criticized by coastal countries and environmentalists, and moving it via a pipeline into Iran. Feasibility studies have been completed and the project was approved in the beginning of 2013.

The first stage of the project envisages having 200 million cubic meters of water drawn from the Caspian Sea on average per year. Ultimately the projects aim to transfer 500 million cubic meters of water annually to the Iranian central plateau and Kavir Desert via a 500-kilometer pipeline. It is reported that within the project, Simman, and then Yazd and Kerman, will have the water irrigated through their territories on to Sari County in Mazandaran province.

Nearly 14 percent of Iran's territory is a desert and suffers from prolonged droughts. Besides, water shortages are compounded by the unequal distribution of water. Near the Caspian Sea, rainfall averages about 1,280 mm per year, but in the Central Plateau and in the lowlands to the south it seldom exceeds 100 mm.

According to TodaysZaman newspaper, assessments carried out by Iran indicated that these projects do not disturb the water balance of the donor basin, and the amount of water transferred was measured to be at a very low level, as well as that it would not affect any of the projects to be carried out in donor basins in the future.

Furthermore, the projects did not harm the environment, nor affect the socioeconomic structure of the area.

Environmentalists, on the other hand, reportedly considered this project as far from being applicable; they also suggested that the cost of the water transfer is quite high.

The Caspian Sea, with a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers and a water volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers, is a closed basin with no flow to the outside. Its salinity is about a third of that of sea water. It is bounded to the north by Russia, to the south by Iran, to the west by Azerbaijan, and to the east by Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Obtaining water through desalination of the Caspian Sea has taken place before, but the projects have not been as large as Iran's new project.

Iran has not held any consultations with riparian countries on this project. Also, the legal status of the Caspian hasn't been determined yet though negotiations on the matter are conducted regularly.