Iran moves to rescue Lake Urmia

Iran is planning to revive the northwestern Lake Urmia by pumping water from Armenia and Georgia.

The water will be brought from Armenia’s Lake Sevan and Georgia’s Kura River via three pumping stations in Iran, Iranian MP Ali Alilou told reporters in the northwestern city of Tabriz on Sunday.

Located between the provinces of East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan, the saltwater lake, one of the largest on the planet, is on the brink of a major environmental disaster due to its highly endangered ecosystem.

As the amount of water in the lake has decreased from 36 billion cubic meters to 2 billion cubic meters, Alilou noted that there is no point in using additional water from the nearby Zab and Aras rivers, running in Iran’s northwestern border regions.