The drying up of Lake Urmu has caused serious environmental consequences in the surrounding area.
The statement came from Mehran Nazari, head of the West Azerbaijan Environmental Protection Department.

According to him, the most important environmental problem in the province is water shortage.

“Over the past year, the level of Lake Urmu has fallen sharply. As a result, the risk of salt dust storms in the region has increased sharply,” he said.

The volume of water in Lake Urmu has halved. The statement came from Yasir Rahbardin, head of the West Azerbaijan Regional Water Company. He attributed this to the lack of annual rainfall, the lack of an annual share of water to be released into the lake, and a sharp decline in other natural flows.

“Currently, the volume of water in the lake is 2 billion 450 million cubic meters, and the water level is 1270 meters compared to the surface of the open sea. This is 63 cm less than in the same period last year, “the leader told Irna.

According to him, despite the fact that the area of ​​the lake was 3,470 square kilometers in the same period last year, this area has now been reduced to 1,777 square kilometers, or 1,701 square kilometers.

Referring to the current serious water shortage problem in Western Azerbaijan, Yasir Rahbardin said that only 30% of the province’s dams have water.

“Currently, the total volume of water in 14 dams in Western Azerbaijan is 590 million cubic meters. Compared to the same period last year, the volume of water in the dams decreased by 23%, “said the head of the Regional Water Company.

Yasir Rahbardin will hold a meeting in Tehran on December 22 under Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi to discuss the restoration of Lake Urmia, adding that the meeting will determine the annual volume of water to be released into the lake.