ISTANBUL — In the first such project in the world, Turkey is planning to pump water to northern Cyprus with the help of an 80-kilometer pipeline running under the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of 250 meters. The immediate aim of plan is to provide water for the Turkish sector of Cyprus. But Ankara hopes the technical knowledge gained in the course of the project could enable Turkey to export water to countries in the Middle East as well, potentially contributing to Turkey’s power in the region.

Construction of a dam for the project in the southern Turkish province of Mersin on the Mediterranean coast is scheduled to end March 7. The dam is intended to store water from the Anamur River, which flows into the Mediterranean Sea from the Taurus Mountains. If all goes according to plan, the water will be pumped through the pipeline starting in July, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of Turkey’s military intervention in Cyprus on July 20, 1974.

“This water will give life to Cyprus,” Forestry and Water Minister Veysel Eroglu said in February. The project, expected to cost around 1.2 billion Turkish lira ($542 million), is designed to bring 75 billion cubic meters of fresh water a year from the southern Turkish river of Anamur to the Turkish sector of Cyprus. About half of the water is to be used for irrigation and the other half as drinking water for the sector’s 300,000 residents.

To keep the polyethylene pipeline in place under the sea, engineers will connect it to steel ropes tethered to blocks of concrete on the sea bed. “It is an original project, to be implemented for the first time worldwide,” stated the General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSI), Turkey’s water agency, on its website.