Lake Hāmūn (, ''Daryāche-ye Hāmūn''; ), or the Hamoun Oasis, is a seasonal lake and

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s in the

endorheic An endorheic basin ( ; also endoreic basin and endorreic basin) is a drainage basin that normally retains water and allows no outflow to other external bodies of water (e.g. rivers and oceans); instead, the water drainage flows into permanent ...

Sīstān Basin in the

Sistan Sistān (), also known as Sakastān (, , current name: Zabol) and Sijistan (), is a historical region in south-eastern Iran and extending across the borders of present-day south-western Afghanistan, and south-western Pakistan. Mostly correspond ...

region on the Afghanistan–Iran border. In Iran, it is also known as ''Hāmūn-e Helmand'', ''Hāmūn-e Hīrmand'', or ''Daryāche-ye Sīstān'' ("Lake Sīstān"). '' Hāmūn'' is a generic term which refers to shallow lakes (or lagoons), usually seasonal, that occur in the deserts of southeast Iran and adjacent areas of Afghanistan and

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

as a product of

snowmelt In hydrology, snowmelt is surface runoff produced from melting snow. It can also be used to describe the period or season during which such runoff is produced. Water produced by snowmelt is an important part of the annual water cycle in many part ...

in nearby mountains in spring. The term Hāmūn Lake (or Lake Hāmūn) equally applies to ''Hāmūn-e Helmand'' (entirely in Iran), as well to the shallow lakes Hāmūn-e Sabari and Hāmūn-e Puzak, which extend into the territory of present-day Afghanistan with the latter almost entirely inside Afghanistan. The Hamun is fed by numerous seasonal water tributaries; the main tributary is the

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

Helmand River The Helmand river (Pashto/Dari: ; Ancient Greek: Ἐτύμανδρος, ''Etýmandros''; Latin: '), also spelled Helmend, or Helmund, Hirmand, is the longest river in Afghanistan and the primary watershed for the endorheic Sistan Basin. It o ...

, which originates in the

Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central Asia, Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and eastern Afghanistan into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan. The range forms the wester ...

mountains in Afghanistan. In modern times, and prior to the existence of the dams for agricultural irrigation, spring floods would bring into existence much larger lakes.

Geography

It is located in Afghanistan on the Sīstān marshes west of the Dasht-e Mārgō desert where the

forms a dendritic delta. Water flows in a circular fashion through a string of lakes starting with Hāmūn-e Puzak in the northeast, sweeping into Hāmūn-e Sabari and finally overflows into Hāmūn-e Helmand in the southwest. It used to cover an area of about with dense reed beds and

tamarisk The genus ''Tamarix'' (tamarisk, salt cedar, taray) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia and Africa. The generic name originated in Latin and may refer to the Tamb ...

thicket fringing on the edges of the upper lakes. The area was thriving with wildlife animals and migratory birds. A trapezoid-shaped

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

outcropping, known as Mount Khajeh, rises up as an island in the middle of which used to be Hāmūn Lake and the northeastern edge of ''Hāmūn-e Helmand''. Its flat-topped peak rises up 609 meters above sea level with a diameter of , being the only remaining natural uplift in the Sīstān flatlands. Hamun Lake is sometimes categorized as three sibling shallow lakes, that is, Hamun-e Helmand, Hāmūn-e Sabari and Hāmūn-e Puzak, the latter extending into the Lash Wa Juwayn District of

Farah Province Farah (Pashto :فرَاه /) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the southwestern part of the country on the border with Iran. It is a spacious and sparsely populated province, divided into eleven Districts of Afghanistan, dist ...

in Afghanistan. Lake Hāmūn is fed primarily by water catchments on the Afghan side, including the

Harut River The Harut River or Adraskan River is a river of Afghanistan which belongs to the Sistan Basin. The source of the river lies in the mountains to the southeast of Herat Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest ...

. It is in the

region and it is in the Lash Wa Juwayn District of the

of Afghanistan. The

flows into the lake on the Afghanistan side of the border. In 1976, when rivers in Afghanistan were flowing regularly, the amount of water in the lake was relatively high. Between 1999 and 2001, however, the lake all but dried up and disappeared, as can be seen in the 2001 satellite image. When droughts occur in Afghanistan, or the water in watersheds that support Lake Hāmūn is drawn down by other natural or human-induced reasons, the result is a dry lake bed in Iran. In addition, when the lake is dry, seasonal winds blow fine sands off the exposed lake bed. The sand is swirled into huge dunes that may cover a hundred or more fishing villages along the former lakeshore. Wildlife around the lake is negatively impacted and fisheries are brought to a halt. Changes in water policies and substantial rains in the region hope to effect a return of much of the water in Lake Hamoun by 2003. In 1975 the Hāmūn, together with Hāmūn-e Sabari, was designated a

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

History

Archeological sites

The area has important archeological remains. The giant prehistoric city of

Shahr-e Sukhteh Shahr-e Sukhteh (, meaning "Burnt City"), c. 3550–2300 BC,Ascalone, E., and P. F. Fabbri, (2022)"Demographic considerations regarding the settlement and necropolis of Shahr i Sokhta" in: E. Ascalone and S.M.S. Sajjadi (eds.), Excavations and R ...

is located in the area. Also the ruins of an ancient

Achaemenid The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the large ...

city Dahan-e Gholaman (“Gate of Slaves”) are near the Hāmūn Lake. Shahr-i-Sokhta is located about 35km southwest of Dahan-e Gholaman. In 1975 the Hāmūn-e Helmand, together with Hāmūn-e Sabari, was designated a

Ramsar site A Ramsar site is a wetland site designated to be of international importance under the Ramsar Convention,8 ha (O) *** Permanent 8 ha (P) *** Seasonal Intermittent < 8 ha(Ts) **

Irrigation

In the past five millennia, people have lived around Hamoun Oasis and its

s and their wildlife. Specific culture formed around the Hamoun with a way of life suited to the desert wetlands. They fashioned long reed boats to navigate the shallow waters and erected squat, red clay houses to withstand the heat of the desert. Their livelihood was based almost entirely on hunting, fishing, and farming.
Until the late 20th century,

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering of plants) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has bee ...

waxed and waned in the Sīstān Basin for over 4,000 years without destroying the wetlands, but then population rapidly increased and new water management technologies were brought to the region. Soon irrigation schemes began to snake their way throughout the basin. Farther west, revolving Afghan governments constructed large dams (Arghandab Dam, Kajaki Dam) that diverted water from the upper reaches of the river.

Devastation by extreme droughts in 1999-2001

Precipitation variability in the

results in alternating periods of flooding in the

Helmand Helmand (Pashto/Dari: ; ), also known as Hillmand, in ancient times, as Hermand and Hethumand, is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, in the south of the country. It is the largest province by area, covering area. The province contains 18 ...

and droughts, which may cause entire lagoons to dry up. This occurred several times in the 20th century when only the uppermost of the lakes remained flooded. Landsat satellite imagery show how dramatic decrease in precipitation resulted in decrease of snow-covered area in the Helmand Basin, from 41,000 km² in 1998 to 26,000 km² in 2000. By 2001, Iran and Afghanistan were experienced for the third consecutive year an extreme drought that was so severe that the Hamoun dried out completely. Sīstān's population, swelled by refugees from war-torn Afghanistan, has been severely affected by water shortages. Irrigation channels have run dry and agriculture has come to a standstill, which has resulted in the abandonment of many villages as people migrate in search of water. Combination of drought and the massive irrigation proved to be a shock to the

s. Within five years period (1998-2002) once fertile wetlands rapidly deteriorated. We could reasonably presume that transformation of Hamoun into arid country, like their surrounding areas, was mainly caused by irrigated agriculture expansion since the 1970s (represent as bright red patches on satellite images, mainly wheat and barley), coupled with one of the worst droughts ever witnessed in Central Asia in 1999-2001 period.
The wetlands have been replaced mostly by lifeless salt flats and decaying reed stands. The wildlife, the towns, the fisheries, and the agriculture that once surrounded the Hamoun have all fallen away, giving rise to a wasteland. Winds that were once cooled by the waters of the wetlands now drifting dust, sand, and salt from the dried lakebeds onto the surrounding villages, and these sand drifts have submerged nearly 100 villages beneath dunes in a landscape reminiscent of the

Aral Sea The Aral Sea () was an endorheic lake lying between Kazakhstan to its north and Uzbekistan to its south, which began shrinking in the 1960s and had largely dried up into desert by the 2010s. It was in the Aktobe and Kyzylorda regions of Kazakhst ...

disaster. Most of the crops have been reduced to dust bowl conditions,

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

herds have been decimated, and thriving fishery with an annual catch of around 12,000 tons has been wiped out. Many who had lived around the Hamoun for generations either moved away or lost everything.
Local bird population disappeared and migratory birds no longer stop for lack of refuge, and wildlife that could not sustain themselves in the desert or make the long journey to another oasis died. The rest of the

s now give off the harsh glare of dried salt flats. The only relatively large bodies of standing water are Chāh-Nīmeh IV reservoir maintained for drinking water.

Notes

References

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External links

* {{Nimruz Province Endorheic lakes of Asia Hamun, Lake Hamun, Lake Helmand River drainage basin Helmand River Wetlands of Afghanistan Wetlands of Iran Archaeological sites in Iran Ramsar sites in Iran Landforms of Farah Province Landforms of Nimruz Province Landforms of Kandahar Province Landforms of Sistan and Baluchestan province Landforms of Zabul Province Biosphere reserves of Iran Sistan