A great deal of non-expert work has been done on Lake Urmia and its watershed area. Among the most significant of these is the building of a highway that splits Urmia Lake into two sections, north and south, by filling it with dirt and stones. Just about 1.5 km of the approximately 15 km highway passing through Urmia Lake is the Urmia Lake Bridge; the remaining portion is constructed by damming up the lake with soil and stones, which has disrupted the ecosystem's cycle. Because the northern portion of the lake is shallower and has less width and depth than the southern portion, water flows between the two as a result of the southern portion's greater temperature increase during the summer owing to solar radiation, which maintained a balanced temperature, but the highway's construction has stopped the water from flowing between the northern and southern portions.
Lake Urmia is drying up more quickly than it used to because, as we all know, evaporation is the only way for water to leave the lake, and so, as evaporation rates rise, so does the amount of water leaving the lake, and eventually, the lake will completely dry up.
Lake Urmia is a precious jewel of Azerbaijan, but it is also negatively impacted by the construction of dams in its catchment area. The water entering the lake has been prevented by highway construction, rapid evaporation, and dam construction. The quantity of dams constructed in Urmia Lake's catchment area is such that, throughout nearly all of the year, the amount of water entering the lake by rivers is zero, which means we have dried up Lake Urmia by tampering with its bed and catchment area, and to prevent the drying up of Urmia Lake, these impediments must be removed.
The construction of both legal and unauthorised wells along Urmia Lake's marginal area is another highly significant factor contributing to the lake's drying up. The formation of wells for agricultural purposes in the marginal areas of Urmia Lake has caused the loss of springs in the lake bed, which is unfortunate given the significance of the springs beneath the lake's bed and its shallow depth (the maximum depth at the highest water level was approximately 20 metres). Furthermore, with the lowering of the underground water level in these areas, combined with the dryness of the springs beneath the lake, the decrease in the level of underground water is also compensated by the water of Urmia Lake, which has played a significant role in its drying up.
