The annual water share of the troubled Lake Urmia is 3.4 billion cubic meters, but since the beginning of the current water year (started Sept. 23, 2021), it has received less than 600 million cubic meters, the governor general of West Azarbaijan Province said.
“The lake receives the bulk of its water share from Salmas, Zola, Boukan, Agh-Chai, Shahre-Chai, Mahabad, Aras and Sarouq dams [all in West Azarbaijan Province], but the water level in dams has plunged due to low rainfall in the region and the lake is deprived of its fair water share,” Mohammad Sadeq Motamedian was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The water level in Iran’s largest inland body of water has reached 1,270 meters, about 3 centimeters lower compared to 2022, and the lake now holds 2.9 bcm of water and 10 billion tons of salt, he added.
Unlike most countries where environmental protection is crucial, the Iranian Energy Ministry’s top priority is farmers and not the lake.
Located between the provinces of East and West Azarbaijan, Lake Urmia is a closed water body fed by 21 permanent and 39 seasonal rivers.
According to the official, the project to divert water from Zab River along the western borders to the distressed Lake Urmia in the northwest is complete and will become soon operational.
“The scheme is part of measures to help restore the once largest saltwater lake in the Middle East,” he added.
The plan comprised a dam (Kani Sib in Piranshahr, West Azarbaijan Province), excavating a 36-km tunnel and digging a 17-km canal.
Motamedian noted that the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company of Iran started work on the project in 2015 and so far, it has spent $500 million borrowed from the National Development Fund of Iran, the country's sovereign wealth fund.
According to the official, 600 million cubic meters of water will be pumped annually from the river to the dam and then transferred to the lake through the tunnel and canal.
Water-Scarcity Problem
Poolad Karimi, a former associate professor of water and agriculture at IHE Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, questions the effectiveness of transferring water from Zab River to the lake in tackling the water-scarcity problem.
"If you go after things that are investment-oriented, you don't have to work with the communities. You don't have to change behavior," he says. "But that's not going to work. Demand will just increase to meet supply."
Karimi and other scientists fear a repeat of some of the unsustainable mistakes that contributed to the lake’s troubles in the first place.
People living in areas from where the water will be piped are furious, too. Campaigners say authorities are simply burdening others with Urmia's problems.
"Restoring the lake is a process. You can't just click your fingers [to get it done]," he said, adding that Lake Urmia’s situation is a result of at least 20-25 years of unsustainable development in the basin.
Decrying controversial government policies, lack of vision, unfulfilled environmental promises and poor water management, Farhad Sarkhosh, the head of Lake Urmia Restoration Project, said the Energy Ministry made an error of judgment in diverting the lake’s much-needed water to the (water-intensive) farming sector.
Such stopgap solutions, he stressed, are harmful to the lake for the restoration of which $1 billion were spent in the past decade.
If the lake dries up, salt storms will seriously endanger the livelihood of more than six million people living in the surrounding area that covers a radius of 100 km, he added.
Lake Urmia is Iran's largest wetland and was once one of the biggest saltwater lakes in the world.
According to Sarkhosh, the lake got a break in 2013 when the Lake Urmia Restoration Project started and focused on reforming local agriculture, which consumes about 85% of Urmia's water.
By weaning farmers off the thirstiest produce, such as watermelons, officials hope to reduce water usage without denting Iran's food security.
And by reworking irrigation practices – notably by watering at night when the water has more chances of sinking into the ground – they envisage both healthier and less thirsty crops.
