Illegal Salt Mining at Lake Urmia

An Iranian citizen journalist, who writes under a pseudonym to protect his identity, wrote the following article on the ground inside Iran.

Just a few days ago, I read in the news that Hamid Qasemi, the head of the Environmental Department for Eastern Azarbaijan, had said that the government would not issue licenses for salt mining in Lake Urmia this year. And yet, my daily commute would suggest otherwise.

Everyday, I pass the mid-road crossing near Lake Urmia. And every day, I see salt being loaded into dozens of trucks in the northeastern part of the lake, getting ready to be sold.

Running along the east side of the lake, stands sell the Lake Urmia salt and other products, something they have done for many years. Environmentalists say that this is disturbing the lake’s natural habitat.

Anyone driving past can clearly see the signs advertising these salt stands, as well as the rows of white plastic bags arranged alongside them. But this small-scale salt mining is not hazardous for the lake. What is happening on the eastern side of the lake is.

Once you pass the turnpike, there are countless trucks, mechanical spades and people busily digging the salt out of the dried-up lakebed.

Dozens of these trucks are then stocked up with the salt from the lakebed so that it can be sold. This business is a new one and only emerged after the lake began to dry out and its shores receded.

I’m no environmental expert so I cannot know for sure whether it is a good or bad thing to harvest the lake’s salt. But my instincts tell me it is detrimental. I used to think of the lake as being as big as a sea. It’s still vivid in my memory and I’ve always loved it, which is why it is so important to me to know whether the mining of salt is damaging it or not — and if it is, to what extent.

Having done some research, it is clear that experts deem the practice to be both harmful for the lake and the people living around it.

For instance, University Professor Hossein Akhani, who says salt mining in the lake is illegal, told the Islamic Republic News Agency, “The main cause of dust haze around Lake Urmia in the future will be salt mining and the digging of wells around the lake in an environmentally unfriendly way.”

He added, “No doubt harvesting salt on a large industrial scale will lead to serious problems. Urmia is a national park, and projects like this are illegal and totally unjustified.”

Contrary to what Hamid Qasemi said, Anaj, a local news website in Eastern Azarbaijan, published official documents that revealed that the government has issued licenses for salt mining at Lake Urmia this year.

One of these documents was a letter written by the head of the Government Audit Office in Eastern Azarbaijan. “Our investigations show that three permits have been issued for salt harvesting in the Aaq Gonbad region, which is situated on the eastern part of Lake Urmia. Two permits were issued by the general offices of Industry, Mine and Commerce of Eastern Azarbaijan and one for the Western Province.”

It continued: “The permits are in line with those issued by the corresponding ministry and in accordance with the regulations and guidelines for the Environmental Department. So far, 188,000 tons of salt out of a total of 290,000 tons stated on the permits has been mined, with 102,000 tons remaining, according to the contracts. In any case, based on the results of our investigations and the mining specialist at the aforementioned office, all harvests have been legal and in accordance with regulations.”

But this once again contradicts what Hamid Qasemi said, according to a report posted on Bidar website in Tabriz.

“As I said in the news during Environment Week, no license was issued for 2014, with two exceptions,” Hamid Qasemi said in the report. “One was issued for the Roads and Urban Development General Office in order to use Urmia salt to put salt on the roads during cold winters. The second permit was given to Kaveh Soda Company for salt in food, which has been ongoing for several years now.”

Qasemi added, “These licenses were temporary and lasted for just four months. No license has been issued since the start of 2015. However, the two aforementioned licenses may be extended.”

Given what I see everyday when I pass the lake, both of these things seem unlikely. From what I can tell, hundreds of tons of salt are mined on a daily basis from the lakebed, all of which one can see in the pictures I’ve taken.

Vartan Vartariyan, Urmia, citizen journalist

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