The water volume of Lake Urmia has surged by 170 million cubic meters in comparison to the previous year, leading to a total volume of 1.15 billion cubic meters, according to the director of water resources research in Urmia province.
Mehrang Rezaei, the director of water resources research in Urmia province, attributed this increase in the water level of Lake Urmia to the spring showers and the discharge of water from dams.
Satellite imagery captured on February 22 revealed that the area of Lake Urmia measured 2,061 square kilometers, representing an expansion from 1,819 square kilometers recorded on March 7, 2023.
Lake Urmia, situated in the northwestern West Azarbaijan province, had been experiencing a decline since the 2000s. As the largest lake in West Asia and the sixth-largest salt lake globally, it boasts a water surface area spanning between 5,000 to 6,000 square kilometers.
In light of recent nationwide precipitation and the imperative of rejuvenating wetlands and lakes, the country’s mapping organization monitored Lake Urmia’s area through satellite images from the Iranian calendar year 1401 (March 2022-March 2023) to 1402 (March 2023-March 2024), reported ISNA.
Significantly, the southern region of the lake has notably expanded. “Between December 2023 and early April, 250 million cubic meters of water flowed into Lake Urmia from dams in Urmia province,” noted Rezaei.
Previously, Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, the secretary of the National Working Group for the Rehabilitation of Lake Urmia, outlined plans to transfer 51 million cubic meters of water annually to the lake across two phases covering a distance of 22.5 kilometers.
The initial phase entails water transfer via the Chaprabad Dam, followed by releasing 20 million cubic meters from the Mahabad Dam to Lake Urmia in the subsequent phase.
Reflecting on the lake’s dwindling water level and the escalating imbalance of agricultural lands surrounding it — expanding from 360 hectares to over 600,000 hectares in the past two decades — Motamedian denoted these trends as posing significant challenges.
Once spanning 5,200 square kilometers, Lake Urmia’s water area had decreased by 80% by 2022.
