Iran (IMNA) - Local officials in Iran's West Azerbaijan region, where Lake Urmia lies, predicted on Thursday that the lake's water level will rise to more than two billion cubic meters (m3) in the next 24 hours.
The number represents Lake Urmia's highest level in more than ten years and was announced less than a month after the government began a costly effort to move water from the nearby province of Kordestan as part of its efforts to revitalize the threatened Salt Lake.
The delivery of water from the Kani Sib Dam to Lake Urmia has reached 35 m3 per second, according to West Azerbaijan Governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, who also noted that if the rains continue, the rate might rise to well beyond 50 m3 per second.
Iran spent $200 million on a 42-kilometer tunnel and canal system to transport water to Lake Urmia. When fully operational, the project will be able to send 600 million m3 of water per year to the threatened lake.
This is in addition to plans to transport 200 million m3 of water each year from sewage treatment plants in Tabriz and Urmia to keep the lake from drying up.
Experts estimate that it will take five years for Lake Urmia to absorb the 3.4 billion m3 of water required to achieve ecologically viable levels.
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