Environment

Iran’s Lake Urmia sees significant improvement amidst restoration efforts

An Iranian official reports that the shrinking Lake Urmia is in better condition than last year, attributing the improvement to favorable autumn rains.

Yaser Rahbardin, the Deputy Governor for Coordinating Civil Affairs of West Azarbaijan Province, highlighted that the lake’s surface area has expanded to about 850 square kilometers. He further stated, “The current water level stands at 1,270.2 meters, and the volume has reached 1.14 billion cubic meters.”

He added, “With continued precipitation, the Ministry of Energy plans to release more water from the basin’s dams to aid Lake Urmia’s restoration.”

“Over 1.18 billion cubic meters of water was released into Lake Urmia last water year, exceeding the planned 467 million cubic meters,” Rahbardin noted.

Efforts to revive the lake include forming inspection teams for groundwater and surface water, dredging canals, sealing illegal wells, and installing online monitoring stations.

Lake Urmia has been declining since the late 1990s, with an annual decrease of about 40 centimeters.

Nine new strategies with a budget of 23 trillion rials were approved last year to accelerate the lake’s restoration and maintain current progress.

Lake Urmia is the sixth largest salt lake on Earth, with a surface area of nearly 6,000 square kilometers.

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