Iran Press/Iran news: Aghil Aghdasi said the extent of Lake Urmia compared to past year in August 2018 increased by more than 1508 square-kilometres.
Current Lake Urmia volume of water stand at 5.22 billion cubic metres which is at its highest level and a record for the past 10 years and volume of lake Urmia increased to 2.97 billion cubic metres compared to last year, Aghdasi said according to Iran Press.
Manager of East Azerbaijan Center for Basic Water Resources Studies, added that current surface level of the lake reached to 1271.89 meter which increased 104 cm and 162 cm respectively compared to past year and in the month of August.
A combination of prolonged drought, over-farming and dams saw the lake's surface shrink by an estimated 88 percent to just 700 square-kilometers in the worst situation before this year's revival of Lake Urmia.
Iran’s Lake Urmia has been greatly replenished and revived as a result of sustained and at times heavy rains in the first two months of Iranian solar calendar, with its water surpassing 5 billion cubic meters or 1.32 trillion US gallons.
Only in the past one month the lake has expanded its surface area by more than 200 square kilometers.
Lake Urmia, a Salt Lake, which once had a surface area of 5,000 square kilometers (almost 2,000 sq miles) had shrank to just 700 sq km in 2013. The reasons were mainly because of prolonged drought.
But the winter-spring of 2018-19 proved to be at least a temporary end to long years of drought. Rains and floods inundated many parts of Iran in March and April and healthy precipitation continued in May.
Situated 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.
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Iran's famous 'Lake Urmia' revived from disappearance
