Tabriz, South Azerbaijan, Sep 28
The latest NASA image from the second largest salt lake “Urmia lake” shows that this lake is drying completely.
These days, concerns about the destruction of Lake Urmia has become an international issue and an environmental crisis.
Gary Lewis, the UN‘s representative in Iran, also expressed concern about the Urmia Lake and said:” The lake is drying up at an alarming rate. The essential problem is that a range of users regularly extracts water from the basin that feeds the lake. That outflow has vastly exceeded the inflow in recent years. Add to this a recent drought, and, as a result, the water levels keep declining.“
He also added that the lake has a celebrated status. It is a national park, a Ramsar wetland site, and a UNESCO biosphere reserve. But vast tracts of its surface now have no water. But the problem is spreading. The salt bed has dried up and salt particles are being blown around to adjacent croplands. This will gradually increase soil salinity and contribute to making the agriculture of this basin unsustainable.
The Iranian regime has not taken steps to revive Lake Urmia. The Revival Headquarters also mentions to lack of budget allocation for saving Urmia lake. The paths of the rivers leading to the lake of Urmia are closed that cause the acceleration of drying lake.
