TEHRAN-- The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has begun environmental diplomacy with neighboring nations in a quote to protect water rights for the nations wetlands.With the direct order of President Ebrahim Raisi to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the need for the water rights of the wetlands with catchment locations from the border rivers with the nearby nations is being followed up.In the past years, the neighboring nations have not offered the water rights of the wetlands in the south-east and north-west of the nation, and this issue has created problems, Mojtaba Zoljoudi, an authorities with the Department of Environment, has said.Referring to the dust storms emerging from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait to the west of Iran, he stated: Agreement with the neighbors and solving this problem is the first top priority of the nations environmental diplomacy, which began this year and continues with more strength than in the past.
He went on to state that 12 nearby countries are members of the Ramsar Convention, and efforts are being made to form an excellent cooperation in this format to solve the environmental issues of the region, he added, IRIB reported.Next week, the conference of the executive committee of the Regional Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Areas, called ROPME) will be held, he noted.
Iran will utilize this chance to hold great negotiations with the authorities of the Persian Gulf nations regarding the control of oil contamination and desalination effluents.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, as the secretariat, is expected to take the center stage in negotiations about the status of wetlands in the region and dust contamination in this area.There are 3.5 million hectares of wetlands in the country, of which 1.5 million have dried up to a big level due to the droughts of the last 2 years and have actually led the way for dust storms.
Although the quantity of rains has actually been great this year, it is still not in a beneficial situation and to enhance the conditions, we expect continued rains and then the action of the Ministry of Energy in securing the water rights of the wetlands, he highlighted.According to the law, after the supply of drinking water to individuals, the arrangement of water rights for wetlands and rivers is a top priority, while in the previous years, following the incident of drought, less than 30 percent of the water rights have actually been supplied, and this amount in some provinces is less than 10 percent.This year, the Ministry of Energy has complied more in this field and previously, the water rights of Bakhtegan Wetland and satellite wetlands of Lake Urmia have actually been protected to some level, Zoljoudi said.There are more than 2,000 wetlands in the country, 226 of which have actually been authorized by the administration to be assigned water rights, and 36 wetlands in Iran have been registered in the Ramsar Convention.The upcoming meeting of the 5 countries of the Caspian Sea that are members of the Tehran Convention, is scheduled to be kept in Iran.
We are developing a strategy with the cooperation of these countries to produce an appropriate environment around the Caspian Sea, both in terms of contamination control and watershed management.
MG