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The ferries that once shuttled tourists to and from the little islets in Iran's Lake Urmia sit rusty, unable to move, on what is rapidly becoming a salt plain. Just two decades ago, Urmia was the Middle East's biggest lake, its local economy a thriving tourist center of hotels and restaurants.

I have often heard about droughts here in California, but I feel like droughts in many places around the world remain under the radar, even when they have a much larger chance of affecting the political and economic situations of the countries they are in.

Good find, Kylan. I didn't know about this lake: "Lake Urmia is an endorheic salt lake in Iran. The lake is located between the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan in Iran, and west of the southern portion of the Caspian Sea". "endorheic" means there are no waterways going in or out of it. "closed drainage basin that retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans, but converges instead into lakes or swamps, "