{"id":27521,"date":"2018-12-31T09:22:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T09:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27521"},"modified":"2018-12-31T09:22:50","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T09:22:50","slug":"iran-sees-revival-of-imperiled-lake-urmia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=27521","title":{"rendered":"Iran sees \u2018revival\u2019 of imperiled Lake Urmia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nMIANDOAB, Iran: It is one of the worst ecological disasters of recent decades, but the shrinking of Iran\u2019s great Lake Urmia finally appears to be stabilizing and officials see the start of a revival.<\/p>\n

\nA rusty cargo ship and a row of colorful 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.<\/p>\n

\nSituated 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.<\/p>\n

\nThe lake has been shrinking since 1995, according to the UN Environment Program, due to a combination of prolonged drought, over-farming and dams.<\/p>\n

\nBy August 2011 the lake\u2019s surface was 2,366 sq. km. and shrank drastically to just 700 km2 in 2013, according to the UN.<\/p>\n

\n\"\"The catastrophe has threatened the habitat of shrimp, flamingos, deers and wild sheep and caused salt storms that pollute nearby cities and farms.<\/p>\n

\nThat finally triggered a coordinated effort to save the lake in 2013 \u2014 with a joint program between Iran and the UN Development Program (UNDP) funded by the Japanese government.<\/p>\n

\nThe project became a priority for the incoming administration of President Hassan Rouhani.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cOne of my promises was to revive Urmia lake, and I am still committed to that promise,\u201d Rouhani said during a recent visit to the region.<\/p>\n

\nSome positive results are finally emerging and the lake\u2019s surface area reached 2,300 km2 last year, according to UNDP figures.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThis is the beginning of the lake\u2019s revival,\u201d said Abolfazl Abesht, who heads the wetlands unit of Iran\u2019s environment department.<\/p>\n

\nHe warned it would take \u201cdecades\u201d to return to the 5,000 km2 it once covered, but at least \u201cnow the trend has stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nRising temperatures and reduced rainfall have been a major factor in the lake\u2019s decline, experts say.<\/p>\n

\nSo, 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.<\/p>\n

\nBut people were also a major part of the problem due to a rapid rise in the population and farming around the lake, which provides a livelihood to some 6 million people.<\/p>\n

\nThe 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.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAlmost 85 percent of the water is used for agriculture, and we are trying to help farmers reduce usage through cheap and effective techniques,\u201d said Abesht.<\/p>\n

\nMeasures such as using natural instead of chemical fertilizers, or levelling the land to avoid runoff, have shown major improvements for local farmer Afshin Medadi.<\/p>\n

\nThe 47-year-old had to invest in new equipment, but says \u201cthings are more cost-effective now,\u201d with his farm using a tenth of the water.<\/p>\n

\nThere has also been a noticeable reduction in the salt and dust pollution whipped up from the desiccated lake floor during storms, he added.<\/p>\n

\nOthers have launched their own green initiatives.<\/p>\n

\nOne group of 20 women set up a collective to raise awareness among lakeside communities about water waste, and encourage the production of handicrafts to boost sustainable employment.<\/p>\n

\nOne of the organizers, 39-year-old Kobra Asghari from the village of Gharehgozlou, hopes industries such as carpet and doll-making can gradually overtake traditional farming.<\/p>\n

\nThey are also encouraging women to plant less thirsty crops such as saffron and olives.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe gradually managed to encourage the men to do the same,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cPeople are paying more attention to their environment and the dying ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIANDOAB, Iran: It is one of the worst ecological disasters of recent decades, but the shrinking of Iran\u2019s great Lake Urmia finally appears to be stabilizing and officials see the start of a revival. A rusty cargo ship and a row of colorful pedal boats lying untouched on the bone-dry basin are a sign of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":27522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}