The Department of Environment has spent close to $500 million over the past three years to help combat dust storms that have afflicted more than two-thirds of the country, DoE’s deputy for human environment said.
“Fighting dust storms and reviving wetlands have been at the center of the Sixth Five-Year Economic Development Plan’s [2017-22] chapter on environment protection,” Masoud Tajrishi was quoted as saying by IRNA.
The budget has mainly been allocated to protect imperiled wetlands, planting trees and spraying mulch in the main domestic sources of dust and sandstorms in southwestern and southeastern provinces, including Khuzestan and Sistan-Baluchestan.
Mulch is a layer of material applied to the soil surface. The most common type in Iran is petroleum-based mulch whose ecological impact is still a matter of debate.
The official said sources of dust storms have been identified on an area of about 35 million hectares in the country, of which 2 million hectares are in critical condition.
Tajrishi noted that most of the sources of dust storms (350 million hectares), which have recently become worse, are located in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Syria, but domestic sources, including the desiccated wetlands such as Hoor al-Azim in Khuzestan and Hamouns in Sistan-Baluchestan, have made a bad situation worse.
Tehran has appealed for international effort to help tackle the problem that has imposed a high toll on human life and colossal economic cost on the government, but only Iraq has shown some interest in working toward that goal.
The Saudis have no diplomatic ties with Tehran and even when they had, they apparently had no interest in environmental cooperation.
According to Ziaeddin Shoaei, the head of the DOE taskforce to combat dust storms, an estimated $1.45 billion are needed to tackle the near permanent phenomenon.
Massive dust storms frequently hit Khuzestan Province, locking everyone indoors, crippling the entire oil province and filling emergency rooms with people complaining of breathing difficulties and other ailments.
