TEHRAN – The Department of Environment will inaugurate 58 projects in 15 provinces of the country during Government Week, August 24-30, DOE chief, Ali Salajeqeh, has said.

The projects will be inaugurated in the provinces of Ardabil, Lorestan, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari, Sistan-Baluchestan, Hamedan, Qazvin, Ilam, Tehran, Kordestan, North Khorasan, Khuzestan, Qom, Bushehr, Khorasan Razavi, and Mazandaran, he added, IRNA reported.

Some of the projects include air quality monitoring stations, industrial sewage treatment plants, environmental checkpoints, environmental laboratories, dust measuring stations, office buildings in cities, and online monitoring systems, the report added.

More than 34 trillion rials (about $68 million) has been allocated to the projects, the official noted.

Salajeqeh said thanks to the government's follow-up, it took only one year to inaugurate the projects.

Recent projects

This year, during National Environmental Week (June 6-12), 11 plans costing 500 billion rials (about $1 million) were inaugurated by the National Fund for the Environment, IRNA reported.

Moreover, some 300 educational, cultural, and scientific programs were implemented across the country.

On the occasion of the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, more than 200 environmental projects were inaugurated across the country.

The anniversary of the Islamic Revolution is celebrated annually from February 1 to 11.

The projects included establishing sewage treatment plants in industrial estates, setting up dust collector systems in industrial companies, and building ambient air quality monitoring stations and air quality monitoring systems, IRNA reported.

Launching fire extinguishing stations, building water quality monitoring stations, implementing wildlife demarcation projects, launching acid sludge neutralization systems, building water pumping stations for wetlands, constructing buildings for environment departments, building wastewater treatment systems, and establishing houses of the environment were other projects.

Last year, on the occasion of Government Week, 37 environmental projects came on stream across the country.

The projects inaugurated in 14 provinces of East Azarbaijan, Semnan, Qom, Golestan, Yazd, Kermanshah, Hamedan, Isfahan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Fars, Mazandaran, Qazvin, Khuzestan, and Lorestan, Ali Salajeqeh, head of the Department of Environment (DOE), said.

The projects included renovating natural history museums, launching air quality monitoring stations, dredging rivers, building waste incinerators, and opening wildlife clinics.

The credits of the public sector for the implementation of these projects were about 370 billion rials (nearly $1.3 million) and the credits of the private sector were 1.3 trillion rials (around $4.6 million), he noted.

During the environment week (June 6-12), 88 environmental projects were implemented in 20 provinces of the country, he highlighted.

Roadmap for environmental protection

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 further 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.

To preserve the existing biodiversity over the wide geographic expanse of Iran, four types of areas have been designated for preservation and protection, including, national parks, wildlife refuges, protected areas, and natural national monuments. In 1997, the Department of Environment (DOE) held supervision over 7,563,983 hectares of such areas.

President Ebrahim Raisi has highlighted the importance of environmental protection, emphasizing that the preservation of the environment is prior to every development.

Environmental protection will lead to power, security, investment, and production growth in the country, he said.

Both people and NGOs have an effective role to play in the protection of the environment, and they should be given a chance to play their role, he added.

MT/MG