TEHRAN – The Department of Environment’s share of the next year’s national budget is 11.5 trillion rials (about $28 million), ISNA reported.

The budget of the Department of Environment in the next year's budget bill will be spent in four sectors.

The proposed budget for the "Environmental Pollutants Monitoring and Management Program" is 1.62 trillion rials (about $4 million) that will be spent on studying and protecting the human environment and creating environmental pollution control and monitoring systems.

Moreover, 8.94 trillion rials (about $22 million) have been earmarked for the "Protection, Restoration and Improvement of Ecosystems under Management" program.

This part of the budget will be spent on the protection of Golestan National Park and Dena Biosphere, the protection, monitoring, and restoration of endangered wetlands and rivers, the provision of equipment for the Department of Environment, the protection, monitoring and restoration of the four regions Under the management of the Environmental Protection Organization, the protection and restoration of the Anzali wetland, the protection and restoration of the Hamoun wetland, and the provision of equipment for the protection and firefighting units of under the management of the Department of Environment.

Education, empowerment, and promotion of people's participation in preserving and improving the environment is another program for which 930 billion rials (about $2.5 million) have been allocated.

Research and development in the field of the environment have also received 30 billion rials (about $75,000).

President Ebrahim Raisi submitted the administration’s draft of the national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year 1402, which starts on March 21, to the Majlis on Wednesday.

The proposed budget amounted to about 52.616 quadrillion rials (about $131 billion), with a 40 percent rise from the current year’s budget.

The president mentioned stable economic growth, people’s livelihood, observing justice, and efficiency of the government system as the main approaches of the budget bill and stated: “In this bill, the establishment of a progress and justice fund in all provinces is foreseen so that the development credits of the provinces are paid systematically.”

In the current year, some 26 trillion rials ($65 million) have been allocated to protecting natural resources in the fields of watershed management and soil protection, protection and sustainable exploitation of forests and pastures, and dealing with desertification.

Meanwhile, a roadmap for environmental protection has been developed, Rouhollah Naqdipour, the secretary of the strategic council of the Department of Environment, has announced.

The document presents 13 national macro strategies and 46 cross-sectoral measures for five main environmental challenges, he said, IRNA reported.

The 7-chapter book also suggests reforms for systematic purposeful solutions and policies to solve environmental issues including the water crisis, he explained.

He listed the five major environmental challenges of the country as the imbalance between water resources and consumption leading to drought, soil erosion, waste and sand and dust storms, air pollution in metropolises, destruction of biodiversity and genetic resources, and imbalance between the environment and industrial and civil development.

MG