Water from Boukan Dam will soon feed the ailing Urmia Lake with 70 million cubic meters of water per second, an official at the West Azarbaijan Regional Water Authority said.
According to Kioumars Daneshjou, the head of the authority, the release is the second measure to be taken after the reservoir of Shahrchai Dam was opened toward the lake last week, IRNA reported.
"The plan is in line with Urmia Lake's revival scheme and will be implemented on the order of Iran Water Resources Management Company to replenish a small part of the troubled body of water," he said.
Pointing to the strong flow of water pouring into the lake, Daneshjou warned locals against getting close to the river.
Urmia Lake is a closed water body fed through 21 permanent and 39 seasonal rivers.
However, it has depleted drastically due to a variety of factors, including the construction of a 15-km causeway to shorten the travel time between Urmia and Tabriz cities and the construction of several dams that have choked off water supply from the mountains on either side of the lake.
Boukan is the largest clay-core dam in the province, located 35 kilometers southeast of Boukan City. The dam supplies over 100 million cubic meters of freshwater for Miandoab County and a big part of Tabriz in East Azarbaijan, as well as fulfilling the water demands of industries. Some 55,000 hectares of farmlands in Ajabshir and Azarshahr neighborhoods are fed by Boukan.
Less than 20 years ago, Urmia Lake, located between East and West Azarbaijan provinces, was Iran’s largest inland body of water.
According to Farhad Sarkhosh, the head of Urmia Lake Restoration Project, a noticeable decline in precipitation over the past year has caused a drastic fall in the lake's water level to 1,270.38 meters, which shows a 21-centimeter fall compared with the same time of last year.
