Largely unnoticed by the world public, an environmental catastrophe of enormous proportions is taking place at Lake Urmia in north-western Iran. Ten years ago the waves spilled against the walls of the villages. Today it is an almost endless desert. The ships that once brought people from one side to the other lie on the shore like huge stranded whales and are slowly decaying. Salt winds from the desert spread more and more on the fields of the inhabitants and let the plants dry up. Deprived of their livelihood, the inhabitants flee to the surrounding cities and the villages around the lake die out. Lake Urmia was once the second largest salt lake in the world, about the size of Luxembourg. But within a few years, the lake‘s surface area has shrunk by 80 percent. One of the main reasons for the disaster is the high water consumption of the inefficient agriculture. If the situation does not improve, up to 5 million people could leave the region.