The volume of water in Lake Urmia has surpassed 4 billion cubic meters, up 39% compared to last year same time when it held 2.5 bcm of water, head of the provincial office of Urmia Lake Restoration Program in West Azarbaijan Province said.
“The lake now holds 4.1 bcm of water that is 1.6 bcm more than in 2019,” Farhad Sarkhosh was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Measures taken to revive the troubled lake in recent years (stopping dam construction, improving farming methods and existing reservoirs) helped the flow of 4.6 billion cubic meters of water into the lake.
Approximately 270 million cubic meters of water will be gradually discharged into the drying lake from four dams (Boukan, Shahrchay, Mahabad and Salmas) in the province in two months.
Three provinces that share Lake Urmia basin- East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, and Kurdestan - have mobilized to help save the lake that has drawn global concern for years.
“Lake Urmia covers 3,000 square kilometers, up 17% compared to last year when it was 2,500 square kilometers.”
At its best, it covered 5,000 square kilometers.
Located between the provinces of East and West Azarbaijan, Lake Urmia is a closed water body fed through 21 permanent and 39 seasonal rivers.
The lake's water level has reached 1,272 meters, which in percentage terms is 4.6% (60 centimeters) more compared to 2019.
Once the second-largest saltwater lake in the Middle East, Lake Urmia attracted birds and bathers to bask in its turquoise waters in northwest Iran.
Beginning in the 1970s, nearly three decades of drought and high water demand shriveled the basin, shrinking it by a shocking 80%.
It depleted significantly due to a variety of factors, namely construction of a 15 km causeway to shorten travel time between Urmia and Tabriz plus construction of several dams that have choked off water supply from the mountains on either side of the lake.
