Since the beginning of the Lake Urmia Restoration \nProgram in October 2013, a total of 4.6 trillion rials (more than $1 \nbillion at the official rate of 42,000 rials) has been spent, Masoud \nTajrishi, director of the planning office of the Lake Urmia Restoration \nProgram, has announced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shared between \nWest Azarbaijan and East Azarbaijan provinces in northwestern Iran, Lake\n Urmia, was once the largest salt-water lake in West Asia. It was home \nto many migratory and indigenous animals including flamingos, pelicans, \negrets, and ducks and attracted hundreds of tourists every year who had \nbathed in the water to take advantage of the therapeutic properties of \nthe lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, decades of long-standing drought \nspells and elevated hot summer temperatures that speed up evaporation as\n well as increased water demands in the agriculture sector shrank the \nlake drastically. In 1999 the volume of water which was at 30 billion \ncubic meters drastically decreased to half a billion cubic meters in \n2013. Moreover, the lake surface area of 5,000 square kilometers in 1997\n shrunk to one-tenth of that to 500 square kilometers in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In total, $5 billion was earmarked for the\n revitalization of Lake Urmia in the initial plan, of which $1 billion \nhas been spent so far, IRNA quoted Tajrishi as saying on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now the Lake is in a better condition than\n in previous years, on May 3 this year, lake’s water volume was \nestimated at more than 5 billion cubic meters, while last year at this \ntime it was about 4 billion cubic meters, he highlighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since the current water year (September \n23, 2019), the amount of rainfall in the water basin of Lake Urmia has \nbeen 30 percent less than in the previous water year and 7 percent less \nthan the whole country, he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He went on to explain that over the past \n51 years, precipitation has increased by 13 percent in this basin and by\n 35 percent in the whole country, while with 30 percent less rainfall \nthan last year, the lake is almost in a better condition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Considering the predicted hot summer this year, he said that It is predicted that evaporation will definitely increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This year, with 320 mm rise in rainfall in\n the catchment area of Lake Urmia, the lake’s level experienced a 13 cm \nraise, the other indicator of which is the improvement of the situation \nof Kaboudan, Arezoo, Spir and Ashk islands, he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also added that Kaboudan and Arezoo \nislands are connected when water overflows, almost over a thousand \nurials have been counted in the islands, in addition to more than 64,000\n flamingos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Referring to 6 years of restoration \nprogram, he said that the lake\u2019s condition is currently being \nstabilized, the revitalization of the lake is divided into three phases:\n stabilization, revitalization, and final revitalization. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, once we can claim that the lake \nis revived when there is no more sand and dust resources and that the \nquality of water, ecology, and recreation in this basin is in the best \ncondition, he highlighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The water right of the lake is 3.3 billion cubic meters annually, he further emphasized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In previous years, not providing the water\n right of the lake was considered as the most important cause of its \ngradual drying up; in the past, the main rivers in the catchment area \nwere not dredged and due to sedimentation, but over the past 6 years, \n253 kilometers of lake beds were dredged, Tajrishi explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He went on to point out that excessive \nfarming and cultivation of water consuming crops in the surrounding \nareas are other causes of its drying up so that the Restoration Program \ntried to reduce water consumption by 40 percent in agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Therefore, modern irrigation and \nmodification of cultivation patterns are on the agenda, he said, \npointing out that in the past, water-consuming crops such as beets and \ncorn were abundantly cultivated in its catchment area, but we improved \nand replaced medicinal plants such as saffron to minimize the use of \nwater, he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the biological stabilization project\n of dust centers in the catchment area of Lake Urmia, some 23,000 \nhectares have undergone seedling and vegetation planting, and also in \none million hectares were smoothed, which had a favorable effect on \nplant growth and dust control, he also explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is while Lake Urmia still needs 9.5 billion cubic meters of water to reach its ecological level of 1274.10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These days, life has returned to Lake \nUrmia. The lake now has so much water that tourists can swim in its \nshiny water and birds and aquatic species such as flamingos and Artemia \nhave returned to it, but we should not forget the hard days it went \nthrough. Lake Urmia still has a long way to completely survive, and \nneglect can threaten this precious gem of Iran again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since the beginning of the Lake Urmia Restoration Program in October 2013, a total of 4.6 trillion rials (more than $1 billion at the official rate of 42,000 rials) has been spent, Masoud Tajrishi, director of the planning office of the Lake Urmia Restoration Program, has announced. Shared between West Azarbaijan and East Azarbaijan provinces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,4,7],"tags":[28,1139,639,178,1129,1140],"yoast_head":"\n