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Water level of Urmia lake rises

04 April 2020 [15:27] - TODAY.AZ

By Trend

The water levels of Lake Urmia located between Iran’s East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan provinces is 50 centimeters higher than a year ago on April 4, 2019, Farhad Sarkhosh, head of West Azerbaijan’s Lake Urmia Restoration Committee, told IRNA, Trend reports.

According to Sarkhosh, currently, the water level in the lake is 1,271.64 meters. The increase became possible because of rains and due to implementation of projects aimed to raise the lake's level.

Sarkhosh added that Urmia lake contains more than 4.44 million cubic meters of water, ahich is 1.45 million cubic meters more than on April 4, 2019.

The area of Lake Urmia is currently 3,055 square kilometers, and this is 358 square kilometers more compared to April 4 last year, the official said.

The projects to transport water to Urmia lake will be further implemented gradually this Iranian year (began March 20, 2020), and with commissioning of these projects, the water level of the lake will be increasing by 1 meter per year, he added.

More than 35 trillion rials (about $833 million) have been spent on the rehabilitation of Lake Urmia in Iran until March 21, 2019. About 7.24 trillion rials ($172 million) were allocated for the restoration of the lake during last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020).

According to international statistics, by 2015, about 80 percent of Lake Urmia has dried up. The project is being implemented to bring Lake Urmia to its previous water balance in 10 years.

Currently, this program is about 1.5 years behind schedule.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/regions/192645.html

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