Iran's parliament head cancels Caspian Sea water project

Azerbaijan, Baku, June 26 /Trend M. Moezzi/ Speaker of Iranian parliament Ali Larijani sent a letter of request to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asking him to cancel a section of the legislation on transferring the Caspian Sea's water to central Iran. If the president disagrees, the legislation will be repealed, Shomal News reported. In his letter, Larijani cites two legal problems with the government's actions in the Caspian Sea Water transfer project. First, the government's funding for the project exceeds the ceiling set in last year's budget law and second, the administration's cancellation of the bidding process on the project is contrary to the law. The Caspian Sea water transfer project would send 500 million cubic meters of desalinated water from the Caspian to central Iran annually. In recent weeks, Iran's Supreme Audit Court and another supervisory body, the General Inspection Office of Iran (GIO) have asked the Energy Ministry for documents on the Caspian Sea project. Inaugurated in the Mazandaran Province's town of Sari, the pipeline is to deliver water southeast to the Semnan Province in its first phase.