Measures taken to revive Lake Urmia in recent years helped the flow of 4.6 billion cubic meters of water into the drying lake.
The volume of water in the world famous lake now is almost double that of last year’s 2.5 bcm, the Energy Ministry news portal Paven reported.
Located between the provinces of East and West Azarbaijan, Lake Urmia is a closed water body fed through 21 permanent and 39 seasonal rivers.
Once the largest lake in the Middle East, since the late 1990s the lake’s desiccation started and by 2014 it was on the verge of drying up.
Many restorative measures have been taken during the past five years to revive the lake, such as cutting use by farmers and diverting water from rivers.
Improving water management, capping 4,000 illegal wells and promoting sustainable farming over 6,000 hectares of farmland are among other measures taken to revive the lake whose conditions have become a serious source of concern for the people, environmentalists, conservationists and economic experts.
Transferring treated wastewater to the lake as a practical solution without environmental cost is also underway to increase the water level in the lake that has been struggling with a huge water deficit.
Duties of Cities and Towns
The moves are in line with guidelines of Urmia Lake Restoration Project that has tasked towns and cities in the vicinity of the lake’s basin to treat their wastewater and direct it toward the lake.
With all the measures the lake's water level has reached 1,272 meters, which is 1 meter higher compared to 2014.
Since last September the area of the inland body of water has risen by 1,364 sq km and is now 3,186 square km.
The lake supports invaluable and 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.
Biosphere reserves are nominated by national governments and remain under the sovereign jurisdiction of the states where they are located. Their status is internationally recognized.
