A Closer Look at Anzali Wetland
Hamid Javani
Press TV, The Port of Anzali at the coast of Caspian Sea
A flock of birds passing over a wetland. Not so long ago, it used to be home to countless flocks of these birds. Anzali Lagoon has shrunken to a quarter of its size since 1930. As we sail in its murky water, the boatman is careful not to steer too much to the sides, so that the boat doesn't get stranded on dirt and mud near the center of the river leading to its main body. The Lagoon was a frequent passage way for middle-sized commercial fishing vessels. Now its shallow water can barely handle a boat with a couple of people on it.
This is not the only body of water, falling victim to human mistreatment. Keeping up with the current trend, environmental experts say the shrinking Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran is doomed to let down all the numerous species of birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals living, because there's still water in it. Creeping to its final days, this life giving lake will turn into a killing machine by spreading the salt remained on its surface to its surrounding agricultural areas.
Even Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed inland body of water on earth, cannot withstand this. Its coastal lines are heavily occupied by buildings made for different purposes. Experts hold that scenes like these will soon become rare. Oil slicks glittering on the surface of the sea and waste materials are just part of the pollution that people living around the Caspian Sea must endure. Around the Lagoon, it was pale and dull. Water, degraded to approximately less than one meter in depth while it was about 9 meters once. The environmental hazards resulting from it are countless.
More recently, the flow of chemicals that are used to help crops grow, carried here by the rivers contributing to the Lagoon has made its surface overgrown with aquatic macrophytes and other plants, creating large areas of the Lagoon, where there is insignificant dissolved oxygen for fish to survive.
What all the people who care for their environment have in common is to be able to never be forced to stay silent when future generations ask them about whether they preserved the environment properly or not.
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