A new campaign focused on giving impetus to efforts to save the troubled wetlands and water bodies across the country will be launched nationwide in the coming days, announced a senior official at the Department of Environment.
Titled "Water and Wetland," the 100-day plan envisages numerous short-term operations at provincial level, ISNA quoted Jila Aqaei, head of DOE's Public Participation Office as saying. "The plan follows an earlier similar campaign [which was conducted in December 2017] organized by the department which was focused on curbing waste production and littering as well as promoting voluntary rubbish collection," Aqaei said.
The scheme was devised jointly by the Public Participation and Education and Research offices of the DOE in early 2018, and is now in the final processing stage.
As the first step, the plan will enlist government authorities, policymakers and directors of educational and cultural programs to convey environmental messages through small-scale eco-friendly measures, she said. "Secondly, it will target society to raise public awareness about nature and solutions to the growing water problem enveloping the country."
According to the official, the environmental bodies are currently holding meetings to communicate directives to provincial officials on how to implement the scheme. Scientific conferences and workshops are among other preparatory programs scheduled to be held to help achieve the ultimate target.
Ailing Water Bodies
It has been a while since urgent warnings have been sounded about the catastrophic conditions of surface waters; however, almost no significant remedial measures had been employed until recently. Isa Kalantari, the DOE chief, earlier attributed the serious prevailing conditions to wrong and conflicting policies adopted over the years. "The continuation of the present anti-environmental approaches will result in the complete destruction of the country's ecology," he said, IRNA reported.
Some environmental officials have long been calling for a comprehensive action plan to protect valuable natural resources, as the "sustainable future" of many provinces, such as Fars, West Azarbaijan, Khuzestan, Gilan and Golestan, directly or indirectly depends on wetlands.
They all admit that environmental crises do not emerge overnight and it takes years for a natural environment to undergo irreversible degradation. The fast pace of the environmental destruction is the result of officials ignoring standard practices in water management, climate change and excessive water consumption in wetlands' catchment areas, and obviously it takes long-term endeavors and wise and extensive plans to reverse the damage.
According to Majid Zohrabi, deputy for natural environment and biodiversity at DOE, 250 wetlands have been identified in Iran, of which 105 have been the subject of in-depth studies.
"It turned out that 28 wetlands in the country have been seriously damaged and turned into sand and dust storm hotspots," he said.
Remedial Measures
According to Abolfazl Abesht, director for Conservation of Iranian Wetlands Project, studies for the preparation of restorations plans have been conducted on 18 wetlands so far, of which 10 have been completed and approved by the provincial planning and development councils.
"Plans for five more are ready, pending council's approval, while three more will be completed soon," he said.
Parishan and Urmia lakes as well as Komijan, Anzali, Shadegan, Hamouns and Shourgel are among the wetlands which have survived the critical situation, but this does not mean they are not suffering from desiccation. According to Abesht, the abundant springtime rainfalls unfortunately did not feed the wetlands as expected, citing "unsustainable development" as the main reason behind the problem. "If inaction over the issue continues, we will see the destruction of all that still remains out of once-beautiful nature in the country."
