Criticism of transferring water from the Caspian Sea to Semnan; Opponents say the salinity of the Caspian Sea will increase
After the Environment Organization agreed to transfer water from the Caspian Sea to Semnan and received criticism from experts, the dismissed deputy head of the Environment Organization warned that transferring water from the Caspian Sea to Semnan would increase the salinity of the lake.
Parvin Farshchi said in a television program on Sunday, October 19, that by transferring Caspian Sea water, about 6 million tons of salt will enter the lake annually, which will reduce the level of the Caspian Sea by 15 centimeters in 15 years compared to the volume of the Caspian Sea water, which is 78,200 cubic kilometers.
He was dismissed from the deputy directorate of the Environmental Organization in March 2018 by Issa Kalantari, the head of the organization, for opposing the Caspian Sea water transfer plan. He emphasized that implementing the water transfer from the Caspian Sea to the central plateau of Iran will disrupt the cycle of animal species and the level of the Caspian Sea.
However, the plan to transfer water from the Caspian Sea was studied by the IRGC's Khatam al-Anbiya headquarters from 2009 to 2011, and was closed in 2013.
This plan was raised again in the 12th government, and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that "the government is fully prepared to transfer Caspian Sea water." Also, on October 8 of this year, the Environmental Organization, in a letter from Issa Kalantari to the Ministry of Energy, declared the transfer of Caspian Sea water to Semnan "unimpeded" provided that environmental regulations are observed.
The Environmental Organization had previously announced that water would be transferred from the oil pipeline via the Ray-Neka route. However, the transfer of Caspian Sea water to Semnan has faced widespread opposition.
The Natural Resources Organization is one of these opponents, stating that more than 11 kilometers of the proposed water pipeline route passes through the "Hyrcanian" forests, and if the project is implemented, it will cause significant destruction to the forest.
A number of members of parliament have also criticized the transfer of Caspian Sea water to Semnan, and on October 12 of this year, about 40 members of parliament wrote a letter to the Iranian president asking why the "government" continues to "insist on implementing this plan" despite opposition.
Some experts have also said that the implementation of such a project must take into account "all environmental, social, and economic dimensions, and that conducting such studies would require at least six years."
US officials have repeatedly warned against the mismanagement of natural resources, deforestation, and unnecessary, indiscriminate, and unscientific dam construction in Iran, which is aimed at lining the pockets of corrupt officials of the Islamic Republic regime, and have cited these actions as the main factors in the emergence of various environmental crises, including devastating floods and unprecedented droughts.
Source: Voice of America
