Fresh Breath for the Heart of Azerbaijan / Lake Surface Area Quadruples

Rastegari stated: based on monitoring conducted on October 11 this year, the lake's current level has reached 1,270.58 meters, compared with 1,269.47 meters in the same period last year, a rise of 1.11 meters.

Majid Rostagari, CEO of West Azerbaijan Regional Water, explained the latest situation of Lake Urmia.

According to Ambassador Arjan's report, Rastgari stated: According to the monitoring carried out on Mehr 19 this year, the current level of the lake has reached 58.1270 meters, while in the same period last year it was 47.1269 meters, which shows an increase of 11.1 meters.

He added: The water volume of the lake is currently estimated at 2.520 billion cubic meters, while on the same day last year it was only 0.26 billion cubic meters, which means that the lake has withdrawn 2.26 billion cubic meters of water in the past year.

The CEO of West Azarbaijan Regional Water stated: The size of the lake has increased 4 times and has now reached 1,946 square kilometers, which has increased by 1,478 square kilometers compared to last year's 468 square kilometers, and a wide area of dry salt flats has been flooded again.

Salvation of this increasing trend is the result of proper rains, targeted release of water from dams in the catchment area, reduction of illegal harvesting and implementation of lake restoration programs and clarified: the continuation of this trend requires the all-round cooperation of people, farmers and executive bodies to manage water consumption in the catchment area.

Referring to the operation of the Rawan river in order to direct the rains to the lake, he pointed out: despite the relative improvement of the conditions, Lake Urmia is still far from reaching the ecological level, and it is necessary to follow the cultivation pattern and blocking of unauthorized wells with more seriousness.