Ahmadreza Lahijanzadeh, deputy for marine and wetland affairs at the Department of Environment of Iran’s regime, warned that with the current trend, the complete drying of Lake Urmia by the end of summer is “certain,” citing the low water level in the lake.
On Sunday, August 10, Lahijanzadeh said: “The water level of the lake on August 2 reached 1,269.74 meters, its area has shrunk to 581 square kilometers, and the water volume has been reduced to about half a billion cubic meters; a figure that shows a significant and unprecedented decline compared to last year.”
The Drying Up of Lake Urmia Will Destroy Millions of Lives and Hectares of Land
He warned that if the current trend continues, the complete drying of the lake will occur by the end of summer, and due to the “lack of water inflow,” this situation will not change in autumn.
Lahijanzadeh added that although the restoration of Lake Urmia is possible, it will not mean a return to the “ideal conditions” of 1995, when the lake contained 32 billion cubic meters of water.
Earlier, on August 8, Banafcheh Zahraei, director of the Water Institute at the University of Tehran, said that Lake Urmia may have reached a “point of no return” and may never again be maintained as a lake.
Zahraei identified the main cause of this crisis as the expansion of cultivated land beyond the capacity of the watershed.
In recent years, experts have repeatedly warned of the serious consequences of the water crisis, stressing that if the trend continues, Iran could reach a point where not only living in many areas becomes difficult, but social and economic security is also jeopardized.
The drying up of water bodies—from Lake Urmia to the Zayandeh Rud River, the Hour al-Azim wetland, and Anzali Lagoon—is an example of the environmental threats posed by the water crisis and the lack of scientific management under Iran’s regime.
Previously, Lahijanzadeh, referring to the current crisis of Lake Urmia alongside the drinking water supply problems in some cities, said that the drought of the 2024–2025 water year is one of the key factors contributing to this situation.
On August 7, eight civil activists imprisoned in Greater Tehran Penitentiary announced that they would go on hunger strike to protest the “deliberate drying of Lake Urmia by Iran’s regime over recent years.”
On July 24, Mohammad Darvish, researcher and environmental activist, criticized the performance of responsible agencies regarding Lake Urmia’s drying, saying: “When we have 14% more rainfall but Lake Urmia is still dry, it means that whether it rains or not, they are not allowing a single drop of water to enter it.”
