A joint Japan-UNDP program to help restore Lake Urmia has entered the next (7th) phase, head of the Wetland Protection Office of the Department of Environment said.
“Emphasis of the new phase is on the people and their livelihoods -- two critical links to sustainable environment,” Ali Arvahi was quoted as saying by IRNA on April 20.
According to the official, the Conservation of Iranian Wetlands Project (a joint project between Iran’s DoE and the United Nations Development Program) was launched in 2005 to help restore drying lagoons and lakes.
Japan joined in 2014, and has since donated around $4 million to help restore Lake Urmia, proving that environmental issues are not national problems, but global ones.
“The 7th phase of the project aims at improving application of sustainability models in Lake Urmia and its adjacent wetlands, promoting local participation in 170 villages around the lake as well as helping improve the livelihoods and resilience of local communities through a more integrated approach.”
Referring to the achievements of the project in the last six phases, he said about 12,000 local communities and farmers around the lake have been trained with the help of UNDP officials. Moreover, water use has declined by 25.4% and farming efficiency has increased by almost 42%.
The plan, the first phase of which was implemented in 2014, generated job opportunities for 250 local experts through collaborating with 42 local companies and NGOs. It also has created green jobs for more than 750 women in villages (in the lake’s vicinity) with financial help from Qarzol-Hasaneh (microcredit) lending institutions.
Treatment plants in Naqadeh, Urmia, Mahabad, Miandoab, Salmas and Boukan cities in West Azarbaijan Province transfer 70 million cubic meters of reclaimed wastewater to the lake every year
Community participation to help revive the troubled lake through water management and biodiversity conservation draws on the potential of the local people and lessons learnt during earlier phases, contributing efficiently to progress of the Urmia Lake Restoration Program that started in 2013, he said.
An innovative feature of the program has been introduction of sustainable agriculture techniques across new pilots in Lake Urmia basin namely organic pest control and water-friendly systems for irrigation.
Official data show 90% of the scarce water resources are used in the agro sector in which unsustainable methods and waste has been a dangerous norm.
Inefficient farming practices across the arid country have become a serious source of concern to the extent that experts in growing numbers have been voicing strong opposition to the growing of any water-intensive crops.
Some new controls and stringent state water monitoring programs have forced farmers to illegally draw water from rivers and streams only to make a bad situation worse.
“Iran's annual water consumption tops 100 billion cubic meters.”
As a result of the collective efforts of the government, international organizations, local communities and NGOs, Lake Urmia is gradually returning to some form of stability with 1,271.6 meters above the sea and covering 3,080 square kilometers, Arvahi noted.
Reclaimed Wastewater
In related news, IRNA quoted Alireza Razavi, managing director of West Azarbaijan Water and Wastewater Company, as saying that close to 70 million cubic meters of reclaimed wastewater enters Urmia Lake every year.
Part of the water is transferred to the lake from treatment plants in Naqadeh, Urmia, Mahabad, Miandoab, Salmas and Boukan cities in the northwestern province.
Transferring recycled wastewater to the lake as one practical solution without environmental cost is underway to increase the water level in the world famous lake that was drying up in the not too distant past and is struggling with huge water deficits for years.
“This amount (70 mcm) was barely 60 mcm per year in 2018 and as soon as the third phase of Urmia wastewater plant becomes operational, annual transfer of treated wastewater to the lake will reach 85 mcm per year.”
The lake holds 3.7 billion cubic meters of water that is 2 bcm more than in 2018. Approximately $280 million has been spent to help restore the lake over the past decade.
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. Located between the provinces of East and West Azarbaijan, the lake is a closed water body fed through 21 permanent and 39 seasonal rivers.
