Three major lakes in the northwest of Iran have disappeared in the unprecedented and ongoing drought that has plagued the country.
On Wednesday, the IRNA news agency quoted Jafar Sediqi, local director of the environmental protection organization, as saying, "The drying of the Qoupi-Baba'ali, Kaniberazan, and Dargesangi lakes, which cover an area of 320 hectares ... in the Mahabad region, has endangered the life of many migratory and endemic birds."

He explained that the "drought has delayed the egg laying of birds in the region," which include ducks, swans, flamingos, herons and gray geese.

An environmental official in the provincial capital of Shiraz issued an earlier report on Monday that Iran's huge southern Bakhtegan Lake has also dried up. State television reports called the lake the "Bakhtegan Desert."

The country has suffered through two drought years that have affected 18 of its 28 provinces. Government officials estimated that a total of 12 million people, both in rural and urban areas, are experiencing water shortages.

Dead camels have been seen by roadsides in the worst affected regions, and although efforts have been launched to move livestock to less endangered locations, many farmers have panicked and begun selling off their herds.

Chinese River Disappears

The Songhua River, one of China's major rivers, has entirely dried up in the ongoing drought that has plagued the region. The disappearance of the river seriously threatens the economy of China's northeast.

This year's drought in the northern part of the country has already ruined 35 million acres of crops and left 16.2 million Chinese residents short of water.

The China Youth Daily reported that residents can now cross the dry riverbed on foot. It said that the river ran dry last month in Zhaoyuan County in Heilongjiang Province. The report stated that although May should have heralded the beginning of the summer rainy season, the region has experienced high temperatures and only 30 percent of its normal seasonal rainfall.

The Songhua is the source of irrigation for one of the country's most productive grain-growing regions and provides water to a string of heavily industrialized cities. At least 40 million people live in the Songhua basin.

Equation:
Sunspots = Solar Flares = Magnetic Shift = Shifting Ocean and Jet Stream Currents = Extreme Weather

Mitch Battros
Producer - Earth Changes TV
http://www.earthchangesTV.com