TEHRAN – Recent precipitation in the spring has restored the reservoir of Lake Urmia, and 550,000 liters of water is being stored for wildlife, says Behzad Shir-Panjeh, director of Lake Urmia National Park.
Lake Urmia in northwestern Azarbaijan began to deplete in the 2000s. The lake is the largest in West Asia and the sixth largest salt lake in the world, with a water surface area of 5,000-6,000 square kilometers.
Rainfall in the lake basin contributed to vegetation and shrub growth, providing a favorable food source for the island’s wildlife as it revived water reserves compared to past Iranian years (March to March 2024).
Officials said Lake Urmia Island in Lake Ashk has five reservoirs, which is considered one of the most important habitats for the yellow deer in Persia. Collected water is released in the summer.
The island is home to Persian yellow deer, goats, rams, various mammals, reptiles and birds.
Repair efforts
Through a joint project led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and funded by the Japanese government, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will participate in promoting sustainable agricultural practices and solutions for the conservation of urban lakes.
On December 1, 2024, the Japanese government and UNDP signed the exchange of notes to launch a project to develop a conservation system for Lake Urmia and other wetlands.
the communities around them. ” The project, which will be held between 2024 and 2028, will be implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment and FAO.
Focusing on sustainable agriculture and climate-adapted livelihoods, the initiative aims to provide long-term benefits to the community while preserving wetland biodiversity as a key ecosystem.
Lake Urmia faces major challenges due to the overdose of water resources, which has been expanded by the effects of climate change, and has severely impacted its ecosystem.
Agricultural activities in the region are becoming increasingly vulnerable to water shortages, a situation exacerbated by the effects of climate change. Research shows that these climate change could further disrupt the vulnerable environment of the agrifood system and lakes in the future.
With the support of the Japanese government, FAO has identified technical agricultural solutions to increase water efficiency in the agricultural sector of the Urmia Lake Basin, which is efficient in saving internationally known biosphere reserves.
Since 1995, Lake Urmia has been shrinking due to rapid upstream agriculture expansion and climate change. These forces are putting precious lakes at risk of depletion, putting local health, economy, environment, industry and agriculture at risk.
Despite the efforts of the Urmia Lake Repair Program National Committee and focusing on lake recovery since 2013, the continuation of the critical situation demonstrates that sustainability, macro and micro management solutions should be considered the key essence of action plans.
In 2016, in a coordinated effort to address the challenges facing the Urmia Lake Basin, FAO launched the “Integrated Program for Sustainable Water Resource Management in the Urmia Lake Basin.” This was funded by the Japanese government.
Key technical achievements of this initiative include implementing waters and projects in the Urmia Lake Basin and identifying water consumption hotspots within the Basin. In particular, water accounting revealed the positive contributions of irrigation and rain agriculture to the evapotranspiration intake of the lake, highlighting the importance of water-saving measures to the recovery of the lake.
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