Lake Hamoon is the largest freshwater lake on the Iranian plateau, located in the southeast of Sistan and Baluchestan province. In the literature and mythology of ancient Iran, Hamoon Lake has had special importance and it has been mentioned about this lake in Avesta and Zoroastrian epistemology many times. According to some historical sources, Timur Lang crossed the lake by ship with the Emir of Sistan. Before drying up, Hamoon was the largest supplier of drinking water and agriculture to the three provinces of Sistan-Baluchestan and some parts of Hormozgan and Kerman, and Sistan and Baluchestan province has long been known as the barn of Iran.
In the past two decades, severe drought due to climate changes , mismanagement of water resources, uncontrolled abstraction of groundwater, and Also, the closure of the Hirmand River by Afghanistan, as the most important river supplying water to Hamoon, has caused the drying up of “Lake Hamoon” and the destruction of agriculture, livestock and other economic activities of the people of the region.On the other hand, other environmental problems such as dust storms and the movement of quicksands have occurred and caused a major crisis in the people living conditions of the area. The massive migration of the people of Sistan to other regions is one of the consequences of the crisis that is still going on.As a result of the drought, the famous 120-day winds of Sistan have emerged, which sometimes reaches up to the speed of 80 kilometers per hour. These winds have combined the dried sediments at the bottom of the lake with dust and created environmental hazard and respiratory and skin diseases for more than six hundred thousand residents of the surrounding villages and towns.This long-term project has started on April 2013 with the invitation of a friend to study the environmental status of Hamoon and to compare its situation, following the photography project of Lake Urmia, and continues to this day.
Environmental experts warn that the revitalization of Lake Hamoon is temporary and the risk of drying up,still threatens this international lagoon evidences, show that we will cry for Hamoon in the near future.
