Urmia Lake’s water level is currently 1,270 meters, down 49 centimeters compared to last year’s level, the head of Integrated Water Resources Management Department at the Energy Ministry said.
“The lake should receive 3 billion cubic meters of water from precipitation, but severe droughts in Iran have adversely affected the water level in Iran’s largest inland body of water,” Kiasat Amirian was also quoted as saying by ILNA.
Plans are underway to increase the lake’s water level to 1,274 meters, which might be overshadowed by low rainfall, he added.
At present, the lake holds 1.6 bcm of water, which is 3.4 bcm less compared to 2019 when it stored 5 bcm.
The official noted that the area of Urmia Lake has dwindled to 1,251 square kilometers.
In 2013, the Urmia Lake Restoration Program was launched to stabilize the lake’s water level with an investment of about $1 billion.
“If it were not for the restoration program, the lake would have become totally dry,” he said.
“One of the measures is the transfer of 44 million cubic meters of water from Kanisib Dam to the lake, which was launched in March. Another project was to transfer 600 million cubic meters of water from Zab River. The project became operational three months ago.”
The official said the project comprised the excavation of a 17-km canal and a 37-km tunnel.
Treated Water
Amirian said Tabriz and Urmia wastewater plants are also expected to release treated water into the lake, which are more than 90% complete and over 100 million cubic meters of treated wastewater from both plants will enter the lake by the end of summer.
An estimated 60 million cubic meters of reclaimed wastewater enter Urmia Lake every year, part of which is from treatment plants in Naqadeh, Mahabad, Miandoab, Salmas and Boukan in the northwestern province.
“As long as old paradigms, including dam building and inter-basin transfers to far-flung regions, are not replaced with new and workable methods like integrated water resources management, the shortage of this vital resource will get worse before getting better,” he warned.
Located between the provinces of East and West Azarbaijan, the lake is a closed water body fed through 21 permanent and 39 seasonal rivers.
Once the second-largest saltwater lake in the Middle East, it attracted birds and bathers to bask in its turquoise waters in northwest Iran. But since the beginning of the 1970s, nearly three decades of drought and high water demand have shriveled the basin, shrinking it by a shocking 80%.
The lake supports a unique biodiversity and its wetlands have been declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
Biosphere reserves are areas comprising terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems. Each reserve promotes solutions reconciling the conservation of biodiversity with its sustainable use.
