Something is going on with the world’s great lakes. Slowly but surely, some of them appear to be vanishing.
Iran’s Lake Urmia has become the latest lake to be categorised as under ‘serious threat’ from climate change, but it’s the latest in a long line of similar disappearances.
Some – like the dying Aral Sea – can be attributed to ill-conceived irrigation schemes. But for others the causes are less clear.
A recent report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found that studies of Iran’s Lake Urmia have seen a decline in water levels of as much as seven metres between 1995-2011.
The most recent satellite image of Iran’s Lake Urmia demonstrates how drastically the lake has shrunk since 1998.
The main cause for the drying up of the lake is drought caused by climate change impacting the inflow to the lake – resulting in a 65% reduction in water levels.
Increased diversion for irrigated agriculture, the building of dams and reduced rainfall over the lake’s surface, are also named as contributing factors.
Scientists have warned that continued decline of Lake Urmia could have huge impacts on the area.
These include a changing local climate – hitting agriculture, livelihoods and heath, increasing the salinity of the water, destroying ecosystems and wetland habitats and increasing the chances of wind blown ‘salt storms’.
The story of Lake Urmia, however, is not new, and similar examples can be found at lakes and rivers across every continent in the world.
According to the World Preservation Foundation one third of the world’s major rivers and lakes are drying up, and the groundwater wells for 3 billion people are being affected.
The loss of rivers, lakes and underground water reserves are impacting the livelihoods of millions of people, hitting animals, farming and electricity production, as well as threatening to exacerbate climate change further through the release of CO2 and methane.
While climate change is playing a role, the building of dams, over extraction and mismanagement of water and over-fishing are all playing a part in the disappearing of the world’s lakes and rivers.
