{"id":3700,"date":"2026-05-30T16:06:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T12:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/?p=3700"},"modified":"2026-05-30T16:06:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T12:36:41","slug":"lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-01.jpg\" width=\"124\" height=\"141\" \/>Mr. Mohammad Darvish, Environmental activist, says recent rainfall has improved conditions in Lake Urmia compared with the past six years, but the lake is still far from full ecological recovery.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>According to Darvish, water volume has risen to around 3 billion cubic meters and the lake level has reached 1270.75 meters, while a sustainable ecological level would require the lake to exceed 1274 meters. He warned against portraying the recent improvements as a complete recovery.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Darvish argued that the core problem is not rainfall but <strong>water management<\/strong>. He said 103 dams and tens of thousands of wells across the basin are preventing the lake\u2019s environmental water rights from being fulfilled, while excessive agricultural withdrawals leave even undammed rivers unable to feed the lake. He also pointed to the rapid expansion of water-intensive agriculture \u2014 especially apple orchards \u2014 as a major driver of the environmental crisis.<\/p>\n<p>According to Darvish, saving <strong>Lake Urmia<\/strong> will require cutting agricultural water consumption by at least half, creating alternative livelihoods for local communities, and expanding renewable energy and non-agricultural industries in the region. He added that Iran must move away from a development model built on heavy water consumption and instead focus on trade, tourism, and low-water technologies if it hopes to preserve both Lake Urmia and the country\u2019s long-term water security.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mr. Mohammad Darvish, Environmental activist, says recent rainfall has improved conditions in Lake Urmia compared with the past six years, but the lake is still far from full ecological recovery. &nbsp; According to Darvish, water volume has risen to around 3 billion cubic meters and the lake level has reached 1270.75 meters, while a sustainable &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213,212,214,148,211],"tags":[216,215],"class_list":["post-3700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agricultural-products","category-environment","category-food-security","category-risk-news","category-scientific","tag-lake-urmia","tag-mohammad-darvish"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.4 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse - Negashteh Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mr. Mohammad Darvish, Environmental activist, says recent rainfall has improved conditions in Lake Urmia compared with the past six years, but the lake is still far from full ecological recovery. &nbsp; According to Darvish, water volume has risen to around 3 billion cubic meters and the lake level has reached 1270.75 meters, while a sustainable &hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Negashteh Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-05-30T12:36:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-00.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"470\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Negashteh Editorial Team\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Negashteh Editorial Team\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Negashteh Editorial Team\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/3280aa03f002013ef59d52b8a01ccced\"},\"headline\":\"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-30T12:36:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/\"},\"wordCount\":223,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-00.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Lake Urmia\",\"Mohammad Darvish\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Agricultural Products\",\"Environment\",\"Food Security\",\"Risk News\",\"scientific\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/\",\"name\":\"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse - Negashteh Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-00.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-05-30T12:36:41+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-00.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-00.webp\",\"width\":780,\"height\":470,\"caption\":\"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"\u062e\u0627\u0646\u0647\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Negashteh Magazine\",\"description\":\"The First Magazine in Grain industry\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Negashteh Magazine\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/logo-latin-negashteh.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/logo-latin-negashteh.jpg\",\"width\":190,\"height\":134,\"caption\":\"Negashteh Magazine\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/3280aa03f002013ef59d52b8a01ccced\",\"name\":\"Negashteh Editorial Team\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96\",\"caption\":\"Negashteh Editorial Team\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/author\/babak\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse - Negashteh Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse","og_description":"Mr. Mohammad Darvish, Environmental activist, says recent rainfall has improved conditions in Lake Urmia compared with the past six years, but the lake is still far from full ecological recovery. &nbsp; According to Darvish, water volume has risen to around 3 billion cubic meters and the lake level has reached 1270.75 meters, while a sustainable &hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/","og_site_name":"Negashteh Magazine","article_published_time":"2026-05-30T12:36:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":780,"height":470,"url":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-00.webp","type":"image\/webp"}],"author":"Negashteh Editorial Team","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Negashteh Editorial Team","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/"},"author":{"name":"Negashteh Editorial Team","@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/3280aa03f002013ef59d52b8a01ccced"},"headline":"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse","datePublished":"2026-05-30T12:36:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/"},"wordCount":223,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-00.webp","keywords":["Lake Urmia","Mohammad Darvish"],"articleSection":["Agricultural Products","Environment","Food Security","Risk News","scientific"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/","url":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/","name":"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse - Negashteh Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-00.webp","datePublished":"2026-05-30T12:36:41+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-00.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/114-07-00.webp","width":780,"height":470,"caption":"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/lake-urmia-remains-caught-between-recovery-and-collapse\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"\u062e\u0627\u0646\u0647","item":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lake Urmia Remains Caught Between Recovery and Collapse"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/","name":"Negashteh Magazine","description":"The First Magazine in Grain industry","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#organization","name":"Negashteh Magazine","url":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/logo-latin-negashteh.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/logo-latin-negashteh.jpg","width":190,"height":134,"caption":"Negashteh Magazine"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/3280aa03f002013ef59d52b8a01ccced","name":"Negashteh Editorial Team","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536?s=96","caption":"Negashteh Editorial Team"},"url":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/author\/babak\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3702,"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions\/3702"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/negashteh-magazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}