TEHRAN – A man-made wildfire burning 10 hectares of Hamoun International Wetland in the southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province was extinguished after several hours of efforts, the head of the provincial department of environment (DOE) said on Monday.

Vahid Pourmardan said that the fire on the Zabol-Nehbandan road started at 3 p.m. on Sunday, but was put out after several hours of efforts by the DOE forces.
Due to the drying up of Hamoun Wetland and wildfire risk, people and locals refrain from lighting fires near the dried pastures, he noted.

Hamouns are transboundary wetlands on the Iran-Afghan border made up of three lakes: Hamoun-e Helmand, which is entirely in Iran, Hamoun-e Sabari on the border, and Hamoun-e Puzak, almost entirely inside Afghanistan. The three lakes are linked and fed by water from the Helmand River which starts in the Hindu Kush Mountains in Afghanistan.

In the last two decades, once fertile wetlands have drastically dried up. The Taliban government closed the sluices to the Kajaki Dam on the Helmand until 2002, which aggravated the impact of the worst drought the region has experienced in many decades, brought about partially by climate change and warming temperatures.

FB/MG