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This dry spell was broken in 2019 and the lake is now filling up once again, due to both increased rain and water diversion from the Zab River by the Urmia Lake Research Programme.Lake Urmia, along with its approximately 102 (former) islands, is protected as a national park by the Iranian Department of Environment.Richard Nelson Frye suggested an Urartian origin for the name, while T. Burrow connected the origin of the name Urmia to Indo-Persian urmi- “wave” and urmya- “undulating, wavy”. A more likely etymology would be from Neo-Aramaic Assyrian-Chaldean spoken by the shrinking number of the ancient Christian population of the nearby city of Urmia, consisting of ur meaning “city,” and mia meaning “water.
