Tehran, IRNA – Head of Iran’s Department of Environment (DOE) Issa Kalantari said on Monday that the Urmia Lake restoration project has absorbed over 15 billion tomans of investment in the last seven years.
Speaking in a national projects inauguration ceremony attended by President Hassan Rouhani, the DOE head said that Urmia Lake restoration projects have had 98 percent advancement and the lake would reach its ecological level in early 2022.
He named a number of environmental projects implemented during the two terms of Rouhani administration, including forestation, tree planting, watershed management, expanding protected lands and plant species, specification of water rights for over 70 wetlands, locating haze producing areas, and containing parts of them, elevating air pollution-related standards for vehicles, etc.
Kalantari noted that no national project has begun without environmental assessments and no license has been issued for water-intensive industries within inland regions and they have been moved to coastal areas.
President Rouhani inaugurated several national projects today, the bulk of which were pertaining to environment protection.
Source: Islamic Republic News Agency – IRNA
