Introduction
Urmia Lake in the North West of Iran has been drying during past two decades. As a population of almost 6 million is directly and indirectly affected by the consequences of Urmia Lake dry up, threat of salinization and thereafter desertification of agricultural lands requires careful attention, thus proper actions are needed to be taken in time. To seek a proper remedy for this ecological disaster is essential both from ecosystem point of view as well as social and cultural perspective.
Reclamation of the Urmia Lake will need great amounts of water which should be added to the body of the Lake before it is lost to evaporation. As the rate of rainfall in the area has decreased and every year huge volumes of water are being used for agricultural activities, there is no chance of Urmia Lake revival with current condition. However, there have been suggestions for transfer of water to the lake from other regions including the Caspian see, Persian Gulf and more recently from the Van Lake in Turkey. This latest proposal was drafted by the effort of International Charity Organization (ICO) and was called “Water Transfusion”, i.e “Duplicating” Lake Van in Lake Urmia and assimilating the new Lake Van in Lake Urmia” (Figure 1).
Reclamation of the Urmia Lake will need great amounts of water which should be added to the body of the Lake before it is lost to evaporation. As the rate of rainfall in the area has decreased and every year huge volumes of water are being used for agricultural activities, there is no chance of Urmia Lake revival with current condition. However, there have been suggestions for transfer of water to the lake from other regions including the Caspian see, Persian Gulf and more recently from the Van Lake in Turkey. This latest proposal was drafted by the effort of International Charity Organization (ICO) and was called “Water Transfusion”, i.e “Duplicating” Lake Van in Lake Urmia and assimilating the new Lake Van in Lake Urmia” (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Proposed Urmia Lake reclamation road map by International Charity Organization.
To explore this idea, a team of scientists from the University of ETH, Switzerland with some of the members of the ICO had a trip to the area in September of 2015. In these meeting local experts from different universities and government organizations participated. The team had the following agenda:
1. Explore the feasibility of water transfer from Van Lake to Urmia Lake
2. Identify factors that should be consider and investigated for this water transfer
3. Consult with politicians, researchers and beneficiaries
4. Field trip around Urmia Lake and identification of the environmental problems
5. Identify the key questions and how to approach to find the solutions
Over 30 people participated in these meetings. They came up with the following consensus about Urmia Lake before considering any water transfer from different sources:
• Lake Urmia restoration is essential to the social and cultural identity of the entire region.
• Lake Urmia cannot be restored as it was before.
• Dust is a major problem. Monitoring data on its abundance and chemical composition are still lacking
• Areas not covered by water at the rim of the lake need treatment to reduce airborne dust formation.
• Artemia can be hatched outside of the lake or inside in a small separated region, and this · would not interfere with the pressing issues at hand.
• Water transfer would not be a complete solution, but a complementary solution to other restoration measures as part of a portfolio that must be carefully developed.
• Lake Urmia water cannot be used for irrigation, neither now nor in future. Restoration efforts must involve the public and be participatory; and the existing participatory processes should be strengthened.
• The ICO's Lake Van-Lake Urmia water transfer proposal must be investigated with respect to its technical feasibility, environmental consequences, and sociopolitical repercussions.
• As billions would be spent, the bigger context needs to be considered carefully through a holistic analysis.
• The proposed water transfer project must not stop other efforts to mitigate the existing problem.
• In particular, a backfire by undermining efforts to reduce water consumption in agriculture, households and industry in case of implementing a water transfer project must be prevented.
It was also concluded in the meetings that as a first step in such a momentous effort, the chemical and mineralogical composition of the mixed waters should be studied in order to get a general idea about the possible quality and interactions which can happen when two waters mix. Therefore the aim of this research was to study the effects of mixing Urmia Lake water (ULW) with Van Lake water (VLW) on chemical and mineralogical characteristics of resulting water.
To provide answer to this main question the team needed to prepare more specific and technical questions related to the issue in an inclusive manner. That's why a methodology for this research was prepared to guide the researchers from different universities for performing similar analysis and compare the results.
To explore this idea, a team of scientists from the University of ETH, Switzerland with some of the members of the ICO had a trip to the area in September of 2015. In these meeting local experts from different universities and government organizations participated. The team had the following agenda:
1. Explore the feasibility of water transfer from Van Lake to Urmia Lake
2. Identify factors that should be consider and investigated for this water transfer
3. Consult with politicians, researchers and beneficiaries
4. Field trip around Urmia Lake and identification of the environmental problems
5. Identify the key questions and how to approach to find the solutions
Over 30 people participated in these meetings. They came up with the following consensus about Urmia Lake before considering any water transfer from different sources:
• Lake Urmia restoration is essential to the social and cultural identity of the entire region.
• Lake Urmia cannot be restored as it was before.
• Dust is a major problem. Monitoring data on its abundance and chemical composition are still lacking
• Areas not covered by water at the rim of the lake need treatment to reduce airborne dust formation.
• Artemia can be hatched outside of the lake or inside in a small separated region, and this · would not interfere with the pressing issues at hand.
• Water transfer would not be a complete solution, but a complementary solution to other restoration measures as part of a portfolio that must be carefully developed.
• Lake Urmia water cannot be used for irrigation, neither now nor in future. Restoration efforts must involve the public and be participatory; and the existing participatory processes should be strengthened.
• The ICO's Lake Van-Lake Urmia water transfer proposal must be investigated with respect to its technical feasibility, environmental consequences, and sociopolitical repercussions.
• As billions would be spent, the bigger context needs to be considered carefully through a holistic analysis.
• The proposed water transfer project must not stop other efforts to mitigate the existing problem.
• In particular, a backfire by undermining efforts to reduce water consumption in agriculture, households and industry in case of implementing a water transfer project must be prevented.
It was also concluded in the meetings that as a first step in such a momentous effort, the chemical and mineralogical composition of the mixed waters should be studied in order to get a general idea about the possible quality and interactions which can happen when two waters mix. Therefore the aim of this research was to study the effects of mixing Urmia Lake water (ULW) with Van Lake water (VLW) on chemical and mineralogical characteristics of resulting water.
To provide answer to this main question the team needed to prepare more specific and technical questions related to the issue in an inclusive manner. That's why a methodology for this research was prepared to guide the researchers from different universities for performing similar analysis and compare the results.
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