TEHRAN – By the end of the Iranian calendar year 1410 (March 2032), all houses in villages across the country will be reinforced to resist natural disasters, mainly floods and earthquakes.

“Annually, 200,000 rural houses will be reinforced by 1410 in order to reinforce one hundred percent of the houses against natural disasters,” IRIB quoted Majid Joodi, an official with the Housing Foundation, as saying.

There are about five million houses in villages nationwide, he said, adding, only seven percent of rural houses had been reinforced by the year 1384 (March 2005-March 2006).

Currently, 26 percent of the country's population lives in villages, around 39,000 villages have more than 20 households and 23,000 villages have less than 20 households.

Thus, more than 97 percent of the country's rural population lives in villages with over 20,000 households.

Many efforts have been made over the past couple of years by the government to support villagers and slow down the trend of migration from rural areas to cities.

Rural tourism, agritourism, religious tourism, and ecotourism are alternatives or complementary economic activities that could further stimulate rural development while decreasing rural community dependency on one main economic sector (agriculture, forestry, energy, or mining).

MG