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Lake Urmia’s area expands

Society Materials 6 January 2015 12:20 (UTC +04:00)
The area of the Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran has grown up to 1,800 square kilometers,
Lake Urmia’s area expands

Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 6

By Temkin Jafarov - Trend:

The area of the Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran has grown up to 1,800 square kilometers, the IRNA agency said citing Hojjat Jabbari, an expert with the environment protection and ecology department in Iran's West Azerbaijan Province.

Jabbari said that as a result of last year's drought (year starts in Iran on March 21) the lake's area was 900 square kilometers.

He also noted that the level of water in the Lake Urmia has fallen over the last years by seven meters.

"Currently, the water level in the lake stands at 1270.55 meters," Jabbari said. "The water level in the lake rose by one centimeter compared to last year due to autumn rains."

Jabbari also said that the measurements, conducted over the past year and a half, show that the lake's depth is four meters.

"However, in the previous years the lake was 15 meters deep," he said. "The rainfalls since early the year till now have brought 500-600 million cubic meters of water to the lake."

Lake Urmia's area is about 6,000 square kilometers.

The lake, which is located in northwestern Iran, has already dried up by 90 percent. The level of water in the Lake Urmia started decreasing in 1995.

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