Lake Urmia's Volume 40 Percent Down on Last Year

The water volume of Iran’s under-threat Lake Urmia has shrunk by 40 percent year on year, a senior local official told IRNA news agency.

Hojat Jabbari, technical deputy director of the Department of Environment for West Azerbaijan province, told reporters that the water level across Lake Urmia had also dropped by 100 centimeters compared to this time last year.

The lake’s total area, he added, had shrunk from 3,607 square kilometres 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 in Lake Urmia”.

"The amount of rainfall has decreased by 18 percent compared to long-term records and 22 percent last year in the catchment area of ​​Lake Urmia," he said. “Farmers and producers in the catchment area also continue to consume the water indiscriminately."

The drying-up of Lake Urmia had been anticipated since the 2000s. The famous lake has lost around 90 percent of its volume since the 1970s, with multinational teams of scientists drafted in to try to secure its survival.

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