GeoCast

Once one of Iraq’s largest inland water bodies, Lake Razzaza—also known as Lake Milh, or the “Salt Lake”—has lost much of its surface area over the past 35 years. Reduced inflows from the Euphrates River, upstream dam construction, prolonged droughts, rising temperatures, and intense evaporation transformed vast stretches of the lake into barren salt flats. Satellite imagery shows a dramatic retreat of the shoreline since the late 1980s, highlighting Iraq’s growing water crisis. In recent years, however, the lake has shown signs of recovery after wetter seasons and increased water releases into the system, allowing parts of the basin to refill. While the rebound offers a glimpse of resilience, Lake Razzaza remains only a fraction of its former size, underscoring the fragile balance between climate, water management, and survival in one of the Middle East’s most water-stressed regions.

Morocco’s Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex is one of the largest solar energy projects ever built. Located on the edge of the Sahara Desert near Ouarzazate, construction started in 2013 as Morocco pushed to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels and expand renewable energy production.

The project was built in several phases between 2016 and 2019 using a mix of technologies, including vast fields of curved mirrors, a 240 meter solar tower surrounded by thousands of heliostats, and large photovoltaic solar panel arrays. Together, the complex can generate around 580 MW of electricity, enough to help power more than a million people under peak conditions.

One of Noor’s most important features is its molten salt thermal storage system, which allows some sections of the plant to continue producing electricity for hours after sunset. Spread across thousands of hectares of desert, the massive mirrored fields have become one of the most recognizable infrastructure projects in Africa and are clearly visible from space. Africa