The water level of the Caspian Sea has fallen to its lowest point in about 200 years and continues to decline, a local Iranian environmental official said following a meeting among the countries surrounding the body of water on August 12. 

Mohammad Reza Kanani, head of the Department of Environment in Iran's northern Mazandaran province, one of the country’s three Caspian Sea littoral regions, warned that the downward trend could have wide-ranging consequences for coastal communities, infrastructure and ecosystems, SNN reported on August 13.

Kanani blamed four main factors for driving down the water level, including rising temperatures and evaporation, reduced inflows, lower rainfall and a negative water balance. He noted climate change has had a "noticeable impact" on the Caspian Sea in recent years, adding, "Water temperatures have risen by about 1.5 degrees Celsius over the past two decades, stoking evaporation by between 10% and 15%.”

The official noted that higher temperatures and increased evaporation had pushed the sea's water balance into negative territory, with its level dropping by about 10 to 20 centimetres a year which is starting to show in the northern end of the sea on Kazakhstan's share.

About 25% of the Caspian's water comes from rainfall, while rivers account for the remaining 75%, according to Kanani.

The Volga River in Russia, he said, alone provides about 80% of the water entering the sea, meaning changes in its flow can have a direct impact on the Caspian's water level.

The decline is not solely an environmental issue, Kanani said. "It could affect the livelihoods of coastal communities, coastal facilities and infrastructure, as well as ecosystems dependent on the Caspian, including coastal wetlands.”

The Caspian, the world's largest enclosed body of water, is shared by Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan and is important beyond the five littoral states because of its rich biodiversity.

It is home to valuable native species including sturgeon, the main source of the world's caviar, and the Caspian seal. Internationally important wetlands such as Iran's Anzali Wetland and Kazakhstan's Ural River Delta also support migratory birds and regional ecosystems.

The sea's water level has fallen by about two metres since the mid-1990s, according to recent analyses, with nearly 24,000 square kilometres of water area lost, roughly the size of Sicily.

The Caspian Sea is on the brink of another serious environmental crisis, and the Caspian seal faces the risk of extinction, according to Abbas Ashouri, head of the Marine Ecosystem Protection Department at the Environment and Natural Resources Authority of Gilan Province, Iran.

According to him, the Caspian seal population is declining due to marine pollution, depleted food supply, and climate change. The specialist emphasized that the Caspian's only native marine mammal is currently under serious threat.

Environmental problems affect more than just wildlife. Receding water levels and depleted aquatic bioresources pose risks to fishermen and the tourism industry along Iran's northern coast. New research suggests rising temperatures and evaporation account for about 40% of the decline, while human intervention, particularly on the Volga, accounts for about 60%.

Dams, water diversions for irrigation and industry, and canals such as the Volga-Don Canal, which diverts water towards the Black Sea, have sharply reduced the river's natural flow into the Caspian.

The trend is putting the shallow northern part of the sea, which is among its most ecologically productive areas, at risk of drying out, raising alarm bells over the future of the wider ecosystem and the regional economy.

The rapid sea-level fall has become an international crisis, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev warned during his September 8 state-of-the-nation address.

Tokayev called for urgent collective action under an intergovernmental response programme. According to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Ecology, the sea has lost more than 22,000 square kilometres (8,500 square miles) of surface area since 2006. More than half of that loss has occurred along Kazakhstan’s northern coastline, where the receding waterline has transformed former seabed into desert and stranded once-busy fishing ports.