Ab-i Istada ("standing water"[1]) is an endorheic salt lake in the Nawa District of Ghazni Province in Afghanistan.

It lies in a large depression created by the Chaman Fault system in the southern foothills of the Hindu Kush, 125 km (78 mi) west of Ghazni.

[3] Economic activities around the lake include trapping of saker and peregrine falcons,[3] grazing and collection of fuel wood.

[3] In 1974, the Afghani government proclaimed a Waterfowl and Flamingo Sanctuary around the lake,[2] causing considerable resentment among the locals;[3] conservation efforts ended with the Soviet invasion in 1979 and have not been restarted since.

[2] A 27,000 ha area, encompassing the lake and its immediate surrounds, has been designated an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports populations of greylag geese, common pochards, greater flamingos, Siberian cranes, grey herons, great white pelicans, black-winged stilts, Kentish plovers, slender-billed gulls and gull-billed terns.