Three decades of ongoing drought due to global warming and climate change have dried up or endangered many rivers and lakes in Iran. The Urmia Lake in the northwest of Iran ranked as the sixth-largest saltwater lakes in the world, and the largest in the Middle East, was in danger of complete drought (98% of it has dried up and the remaining 2% will probably dry up in the next days). Human factors such as dam constructions and drilling illegal deep-water wells in the lake catchment area, construction of a 15-kilometer bridge across the lake, and lack of water resources management are the most important causes of the Urmia Lake dryness. Environmentalists believe that complete dryness of the lake will change the climate and this is a danger to the ecosystem and people living around it.
Torrential rains of 2019, the rains were reported to be the heaviest that Iran has seen in 50 years have replenished the water levels and 53% of the lake is covered with flood and overflow waters of dams. This improvement in conditions has raised hopes for saving the lake and prevent an environmental disaster. However through the last two years (2022-2023), the volume of water entering the lake has significantly decreased and the water level in 2019 has been reduced by half. Now the risk of complete dryness of the lake and the occurrence of salt storms is very serious.