Ahmad Ghandehari said on Monday that the water input to Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran has tripled, resulting in the lake’s level reaching 1270.2 meters and its volume surpassing 1.4 billion cubic meters.

He stated that this increase is due to the release of 10 million cubic meters of water from various dams, including Mahabad, Bukan, and Saruq, which started on February 22, 2024.

He also noted that the volume of water input to Lake Urmia from the main rivers was measured three times more than last year.

Lake Urmia, located in the northwest of Iran, was once the most extensive permanent hypersaline lake in the world.

At the beginning of the Lake Urmia Restoration Program in 2013, the Lake’s level was about 1270.32 meters, 1783 square kilometers in surface area, and 1.14 billion cubic meters in volume, which indicates a 50 percent increase in the lake’s surface area in comparison to the current water level.

AMK/FNA