Amid the crushing disappointment of Lake Urmia’s gradual disappearance, a wastewater development project in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan Province, is about to offer a ray of hope to revive the troubled lake, the head of West Azarbaijan Water and Wastewater Company said.
“The second phase of the wastewater treatment plant will help raise the annual inflow of treated wastewater to Urmia Lake by 125% as it will transfer 75 million cubic meters of reclaimed sewage to the lake per year,” the Energy Ministry’s news portal also quoted Ali Mohammad-Khani as saying.
An estimated 60 mcm of reclaimed wastewater enter Urmia Lake every year, part of which is from treatment plants in Naqadeh, Urmia, Mahabad, Miandoab, Salmas and Boukan in the northwestern province.
The plan, started in 2015, was supposed to go on stream in January but financial constraints have delayed it, he added, noting that the pilot phase of the project is underway and once it’s successful, the treatment plants will divert 75 mcm of processed effluent to the lake in March 2023.
“Estimates had shown that the project would cost less than $10 million, but due to wild fluctuations in forex market, more than $35 million have been spent and it still needs more funding,” he said.
The scheme will collect and reclaim sewage produced by at least 1 million people in Tabriz and the output will be directly transferred to the lake.
Mohammad-Khani said seven wastewater processing units are at varying stages of construction in the province and will significantly raise the effluent processing capacity after completion.
Tabriz is a big city (population 1.6 million) and produces a huge amount of wastewater, the treatment of which could feed the lake despite its long distance from the lake.
Close to 70% of Tabriz's urban areas are connected to the wastewater system.
Utah’s Great Salt Lake’s Sister
Located between the provinces of East and West Azarbaijan, Urmia Lake — a massive salt lake in Iran’s northwest and a sister to Utah’s Great Salt Lake — has lost nearly 95% of its volume over the last two decades.
As water levels drop, salinity spikes, threatening the lake’s brine shrimp population and the flamingos and other bird species that depend on the shrimp for food. Lake levels are so low that at some coastal resorts, tourism boats must be pulled a kilometer from shore by tractor before reaching suitable depths.
According to Somayeh Sima, an assistant professor at Tehran’s Tarbiat Modares University, Iranian researchers and Utah State University have synthesized 40 years of experimental, field, satellite and model data for Lake Urmia to define new restoration objectives not only to lower salinity, sustain artemia and flamingo populations and reduce lakebed dust, but also to improve recreational access from resort beaches.
The ongoing study (started in 2018) has found that increasing the water level alone cannot help revive the lake unless other important variables, namely lake evaporation, salt dissolution, climate change impacts and socioeconomic factors are taken into account.
“Over the past four years, scientists from the two countries have used data from peer-reviewed, state and non-governmental sources to define standards to raise the lake’s level and improve its ecology,” she added.
Details of the study “Managing Lake Urmia of Iran for diverse restoration objectives: Moving beyond a uniform target lake level” conducted by Somayeh Sima, and American researchers, namely David E. Rosenberg, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, Sarah E. Null and Karin M. Kettenring, were published in the Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies.
Agricultural Development
Following two decades of intense agricultural development, reservoir construction, and reduced stream flows, the water level of Lake Urmia –once the second-largest saltwater lake in the Middle East – declined from a historical maximum of 1,278 meters by 6.5 meters – 1,271.5 meters in July 2020. During the 20-year period, the lake lost almost 45% of its area.
The decline has caused an estimated $1.6 million loss to ecotourism and recreation (boating, sunbathing and therapeutic baths).
“Together can we understand how to resolve these problems. We are at a tipping point and every step is crucial. We have to take action now. Restoring the lake is no easy feat,” she stressed, adding that it is everyone's responsibility, and public support is necessary to make meaningful change.
The vast dry lakebed has become a growing dust problem for the five million residents in the Urmia Lake basin. The region’s ecotourism industry has collapsed and experts fear an environmental disaster waiting to happen.
