Abbas Mohammadi, director of the Mountain Watch Association and environmental activist, warned about the drying up of Lake Urmia, stating that the dam construction by the Iranian regime’s Ministry of Energy, costing tens of billions of dollars in recent years, “has been futile and our water situation is getting worse day by day.”
Criticizing the Ministry of Energy’s excessive dam construction and its destructive impact on pastures and “valuable archaeological sites,” he said the result of these actions has been “the submergence of many of Iran’s pastures, historical monuments, valuable archaeological sites, and the displacement of people.”
This civil activist, discussing the destructive impact of the Ministry of Energy’s policies on the drying up of Lake Urmia, told the Khabar Online website that “dozens of dams have been built on the rivers that flow into this lake, blocking the water paths that should feed the lake.”
The director of the Mountain Watch Association, pointing to the minimal impact of recent years’ rainfall on preserving Lake Urmia, warned that “whenever there is a slight increase in rainfall, various types of unsustainable and water-intensive agriculture develop, and there is absolutely no control over water consumption.”
He also spoke about the dangers of excessive drilling of multiple wells around Lake Urmia, stating that “they have done something to the land that it absorbs the water, leaving nothing to replenish the lake. All these factors have led to the drying up of Lake Urmia.”
Mohammadi warned about the intensifying water environmental crises, stating that at least “200 billion cubic meters of the country’s irreplaceable water resources” have been wasted and “by building dams or useless flood barriers, we have diverted rivers from their natural flow.”
This environmental activist spoke about “water wastage,” stating that “1,000 square kilometers, which is 3.5% of Iran’s land,” has subsided, and “3,000 square kilometers of this area subside by more than 10 centimeters per year.”
In another part of his conversation with Khabar Online, Mohammadi criticized the Iranian regime’s tourism policies, saying that “turning Ashuradeh Island in the Golestan region into a tourist destination,” carried out by the Thirteenth Government, was done without regard to “construction in the Caspian Sea area.”
For years, civil and environmental activists have been warning about the excessive extraction of groundwater and land subsidence.
In January 2024, the head of the National Cartographic Center stated that the average rate of subsidence in Iran is five times the global average and said that the average subsidence in Iran has reached 15 centimeters.
However, it seems that no serious action has been taken in this regard over the years.
The Ministry of Energy has formed a committee titled “Adaptation to Water Scarcity,” but experts say this committee has not taken the slightest action regarding aquifer extraction, aquifer deficits, and land subsidence.
