Iran approves plan to save third largest saltwater lake on earth

The Iranian government approved a plan to save the dying lake of Orumiyeh in the Northwestern parts of the country. During a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, the cabinet ministers and the President Hassan Rouhani okayed a project to rehabilitate Orumiyeh Lake from dry-up. Recently, some local officials in Orumiyeh and Tabriz, capitals of Iran's West and East Azerbaijan provinces respectively, have expressed concerns about the environmental disaster due to the shrinkage of the lake, and have called on the government to save it to prevent the environmental degradation of the body of water. Located in Northwestern Iran between the provinces of East and West Azerbaijan and near Iran's border with Turkey, Orumiyeh is the largest lake in the Middle East and the third largest saltwater lake on Earth. A UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and a Ramsar (an international treaty for the protection of wetlands) site said, the lake has shrunk considerably in the past years and could disappear entirely.