Close to $1 billion has been spent on Urmia Lake Restoration Program over the last five years, an official involved in the Urmia Lake Restoration Program said.
Masoud Tajrishi, the ULRP administrator and director of the program's planning office, told IRNA that the lake (in northwest Iran) now holds 5 billion cubic meters of water, up 25% compared to 2019 when it was four bcm.
"Things look pretty good at the moment," he said.
The lake is returning to some form of stability with 1,271.6 meters above sea level and spreading over 3,080 square kilometers.
Compared to 2018, precipitation in Urmia Lake catchment area has decreased by 30% (320 millimeters) in this water year that started in September 2019.
The big decline notwithstanding, efforts (by the government, international organizations including the UNDP) to save water within the drainage basin of the long-disturbed lake has paid off.
Following implementation of the Sustainable Agriculture Program in 2016, water consumption in Lake Urmia’s watershed has declined by at least 40%.
“Growing water-intensive crops, namely beetroot, is forbidden in and around the catchment area. Instead farmers can plant rapeseed, a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae, grown mainly for its oil-rich seed.”
Annual water share of the lake from 13 dams in West and East Azarbaijan provinces (namely Boukan Dam) is 3.3 billion cubic meters. Prior to the implementation of ULRP, a large part of the valuable water resource was wasted to farm wheat, watermelon and potato before water reached the lake.
Referring to other projects, Tajrishi added that part of ULRP plans to cut water consumption calls for preventing construction of new dams and suspending dam projects already underway until the lake returns to an acceptable level.
As a result "building of the semi-finished Simineh, Barandouz and Nazlou dams has been suspended."
Excessive Construction
Increase in dam construction over rivers feeding the lake have led to imprudent exploitation of water in the lake's catchment area. "This is while, dams technically are built to better manage existing water resources," he added.
The water authority has given priority to prevent encroachment into rivers' buffer zones to stop water from being directly withdrawn from the rivers that should otherwise flow into the drying lake.
One priority is freeing up the banks of Shahar Chay River from its downstream area.
An estimated 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 regions.
There are reportedly over 60,000 illegal water wells in Urmia Lake's catchment area gulping water to feed nearby farmlands, on a smaller scale industries, and for fresh water use.
Close to 6,000 illegal wells have been sealed since 2014 and licensed wells are obliged to install the s-called smart water and power meters to efficiently monitor and control consumption.
Located between the provinces of East and West Azarbaijan, the lake is a closed water body fed through 21 permanent and 39 seasonal rivers.
