TEHRAN (Iran News) –The governor of the northwestern Iranian province of West Azarbaijan said on Tuesday that water has been released into receding Lake Urmia two months earlier than the previous years.
Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian said, “Considering the recent precipitations, the dams in the catchment area of Lake Urmia are in good condition and we will soon release water from other dams.”
Lake Urmia, once the world’s 6th saltwater lake and the biggest of its kind in West Asia, is now on the cusp of drying up.
The tragedy is blamed on a number of factors, including unsustainable water consumption by farmers in the region and climate change.
The rate of rainfall in the region has remarkably reduced in recent decades and the Urmia basin has experienced several multi-year droughts.
- source : IFP
