Strong criticism of Rouhani for “transferring salt water to saline areas”

The promise to transfer Caspian Sea water to Semnan has drawn strong criticism from Hassan Rouhani. A Sari MP in the parliament once again warned that the people of Mazandaran “will not allow such a thing to be done.”

During his recent visit to Semnan, the President of the Islamic Republic promised that the plan to transfer Caspian Sea water to this province would be implemented.

According to data from the Water and Power Resources Development Company, affiliated with the Ministry of Energy, the goal of implementing this project is to desalinate and purify 200 million cubic meters of water annually from the Caspian Sea and transfer it to the cities of the central plateau in Semnan province.

This plan was approved in July 2005 by the Semnan Province Water Supply Review Working Group in the presence of the First Vice President and the Minister of Energy. It was notified to the Ministry of Energy in January 2008, and was handed over to the Water and Energy Resources Development Company for implementation in June 2012.

ISNA news agency wrote: "This project will start as two pipelines 160 kilometers long from the shores of the Caspian Sea near the Neka power plant, and after passing through rice fields and forest areas in Mazandaran province along the Neka-Re pipeline route, it will continue and enter the Khatirkouh region in Semnan province from the Doab region; finally, by passing through the Cheshmeh Roozbeh tunnel near the city of Shahmirzad, it will turn into two branches, one pipeline will be extended towards Damghan and Shahroud with a length of 172 kilometers and the other towards Semnan with a length of 132 kilometers."

Criticisms of MPs

After the announcement of the project to transfer Caspian water to the cities of the central plateau, widespread protests were expressed by Mazandaran officials and environmental activists, which caused the project to remain silent.

Now, Rouhani's speech has also sparked a wave of criticism. On Thursday, December 6, the "House of the Nation" website, affiliated with the Islamic Consultative Assembly, quoted Shamsollah Shariatnejad as saying that the president's statements have no expert backing and that the Assembly has not provided a budget for them.

The representative of the people of Tonekabon, Ramsar, and Abbasabad in the parliament expressed regret for Rouhani "for making such unprofessional statements," and said: "Instead of utilizing the abundant potential of the Caspian Sea, destructive plans are being presented for this lake, which is the national identity of all Iranians."

A member of the Parliament's Agriculture, Water, and Natural Resources Commission criticized the fact that "despite the passage of 40 years since the Islamic Revolution, there has still not been a passenger ship, a recreational pier, or a safe road accessible to people in the Caspian Sea," and asked: "On what basis is salt water transferred to a salty land?"

Ali Asghar Yousefnejad, a representative from Sari, has also criticized the plan and warned: "The simple and pure people of Mazandaran province will definitely not allow such a thing to be done; rest assured."

Gholamali Jafarzadeh Aymanabadi, a representative from Rasht, also asked the president in his mid-term speech: "Why are you transferring water from about 10 million people in the north of the country to half a million people in your hometown without asking anyone for their opinion?"

Previously, Ali Mohammad Shaari, a representative from Behshahr, Neka, and Galugah and a member of the board of directors of the Parliament's Agriculture, Water, and Natural Resources Commission, criticized the transfer of Caspian water to Semnan and noted: "The solution to the water shortage problem in the country's central plateau is through desalination and water supply from the Persian Gulf and the Sea of ​​Oman, and this project is currently underway."

Decreasing water levels in the Caspian Sea

According to experts, the water level of the Caspian Sea has dropped significantly in recent years. Masoud Shafiei, head of the Iranian Mapping Organization, announced in September of this year that the water level of the Caspian Sea has dropped by one meter over the past decade. According to him, the decrease in the Caspian Sea is 380 square kilometers, which is equivalent to 12 Lake Urmia at its peak.

Shafiei, while emphasizing that the trend of decreasing water in the Caspian Sea will continue, cited the lack of rain, the decrease in water inflow from rivers, and especially the decrease in water from the Volga basin in Russia, as the most important factors in the decrease in the water level of the Caspian Sea.

According to Iranian media reports, Russia has been extracting large amounts of water from the Volga River in recent years. This river supplies 75 percent of the Caspian Sea's water.

Source: DW