[caption id="attachment_109262" align="alignright" width="218"] Boats sit on the bed of the dried-out Urmia lake, northwest of Iran October 4, 2013. REUTERS/United Nations Iran/Handout via Reuters[/caption]

TABRIZ, Mar. 16 (MNA) – Visiting Lake Urmia today, German environmental policy expert Klaus Töpfer has said the lake’s crisis must be reflected on an international scale.
Germany’s former Minister of Environment and Chief Executive of Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction met with the governor of Eastern Azerbaijan today and said, “the scopes of the drought crisis in Lake Urmia must be broadcasted across the globe and an international consensus must be held in this regard.”

Töpfer deemed the drying of lakes an international issue, stressing the importance of combating this kind of crises as fast as possible.


“Unfortunately, the shriveling of the Lake Urmia has not been yet considered as an international issue. The world needs to be informed of this crisis properly so that the country could use international aid to resolve the issue,” he said.


He also asserted that activities such as the revival of Lake Urmia could be a sign of peace and gather people around a common goal; “this could actually help Iran’s peaceful activities and international relations,” he said.


Once almost 30 feet deep, the largest in the Middle East and one of the largest in the world, lake Urmia now looks more like a great dry plain, with patches of water. A decade of frenzied water exploitation has reduced it by 80%, putting at risk its local nature.


By Mehr News Agency