Lake Orumiyeh (also Orumieh or Urmia) in northwestern Iran is one of the world’s largest landlocked salt lakes, but it is shrinking. During the last decade, however, Lake Urmia has shrunk significantly and its depth has fallen by almost seven meters. Experts believe that surface flow diversions, groundwater extraction, and the lack of efficient water management are the main reasons. Lake Urmia holds an estimated 8 billion cubic metric tons of salt. According to experts, if the lake completely dries up, which can happen in some 50 years from now, a vast amount of salt will be released into the region resulting in an ecological, agricultural, and social catastrophe not only in Azerbaijani cities of Iran, but also in neighboring countries such as Turkey, Iraq and Azerbaijan. Iran has been one of the states with the highest rate of dam construction worldwide in the recent years. The construction of hundreds of dams on rivers combined with a non-participative and non-democratic approach has lead to numerous ecological, social, cultural and political problems and conflicts in the past years. There is much public criticism over the intense dam building policy and its impacts. In particular, the case of the Lake Urmia has led to hot debates and many protests within the Iranian society regarding the destructive dams in the country.