Iran sees ‘revival’ of Lake Urmia

It is one of the worst ecological disasters of recent decades, but the shrinking of Iran’s great Lake Urmia finally appears to be stabilising and officials see the start of a revival.

A rusty cargo ship and a row of colourful pedal boats lying untouched on the bone-dry basin are a sign of the devastating loss of water in what was once the largest lake in the Middle East.

Situated in the mountains of northwest Iran, Lake Urmia is fed by 13 rivers and designated as a site of international importance under the UN Convention on Wetlands that was signed in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971.

The lake has been shrinking since 1995, according to the UN Environment Programme, due to a combination of prolonged drought, over-farming and dams.

By August 2011 the lake’s surface was 2,366 square kilometres and shrank drastically to just 700 km2 in 2013, according to the United Nations.

The catastrophe has threatened the habitat of shrimp, flamingos, deers and wild sheep and caused salt storms that pollute nearby cities and farms.

That finally triggered a coordinated effort to save the lake in 2013 -- with a joint programme between Iran and the UN Development Programme funded by the Japanese government.

The project became a priority for the incoming administration of President Hassan Rouhani.

"One of my promises was to revive Urmia lake, and I am still committed to that promise," Rouhani said during a recent visit to the region.

Some positive results are finally emerging and the lake’s surface area reached 2,300 km2 last year, according to UN Development Programme figures.

"This is the beginning of the lake’s revival," said Abolfazl Abesht, who heads the wetlands unit of Iran’s environment department.

He warned it would take "decades" to return to the 5,000 km2 it once covered, but at least "now the trend has stopped".

Rising temperatures and reduced rainfall have been a major factor in the lake’s decline, experts say.

So, too, was the construction of a causeway in 2008 to shorten driving times between Urmia and the nearby city of Tabriz that cut the lake in two. The rejuvenation effort therefore focused on redirecting rivers to irrigate farmland, thus avoiding use of water from the lake, and the promotion of more sustainable farming methods.