September 3, 2021
After a period of strong growth, Lake Urumiyeh has shrunk dramatically in the past 12 months, a senior local official told the state news agency.
The height of the lake has fallen by a full 100 centimeters (39 inches).
The water volume is down by 40 percent.
And the total area covered by the lake has dropped 37 percent.
Hojat Jabbari, technical deputy director of the Department of the Environment for West Azerbaijan province, told the Islamic Republic News Agency the water level in the lake had dropped by 100 centimeters compared to this time last year.
The lake’s total area, he said, had shrunk from 3,607 square kilometers last year to 2,273 at present. He attributed this to the “decrease in rainfall and runoff” and a lack of “provision of water rights for Lake Urumiyeh.”
“The amount of rainfall has decreased by 18 percent compared to long-term records and 22 percent compared to last year in the catchment area of Lake Urumiyeh,” he said. “Farmers and producers in the catchment area also continue to consume water indiscriminately.”
The main effort to rescue Lake Urumiyeh is a huge tunnel designed to carry water from outside the lake’s catchment area over the mountains to the lake. It is due to be completed in September.
The Kanisib tunnel, stretching 35 kilometers, is the most important structure for transferring water to Lake Urumiyeh, the Department of the Environment (DOE) says.
The water transfer tunnel is designed to bring the height of Lake Urumiyeh up to its ecological level over the next seven years. That will take the lake to 1274.1 meters above sea level with 15 billion cubic meters of water and 4,300 square kilometers of surface.
The Department of the Environment says that, currently, 150 million cubic meters of water is stored awaiting completion of the tunnel by the end of September.
Farhad Sarkhosh, head of the Lake Urumiyeh Restoration Program’s office in West Azerbaijan province, said there is another water transfer project that will come on stream by Now Ruz.
With the full utilization of water transfer projects, nearly 1.1 million cubic meters of water will enter Lake Urumiyeh annually, he said.