سازمان منابع طبیعی و آبخیزداری کشور

The executive operation opening ceremony of the 2,000-hectare desertification control and tree planting plans in Khuzestan was held in cooperation with the National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) and Natural Resources and Watershed Management Department (NRWD) of Khuzestan province.

According to FRWO’s website quoted from the Young Journalists Club (YJC), in order to realize "Tree Planting Initiative" and the slogan of "To Have Green and Strong Iran, Each Iranian Should Plant a Tree," both of Governor General of Khuzestan province and Head of FRWO planted saplings.

Deputy Minister and Head of FRWO in the inauguration ceremony of this large project said that one of the prominent examples of social responsibilities is the cooperation of industry owners with natural resources management to solve the problems of environmental pollution, soil protection and dust prevention.

Based on his remarks, in many parts of the country, 12,000 afforestations projects have been carried out with the cooperation of miners, which is very valuable.

In this inauguration ceremony, Dr. Mansour said: "Everyone should help in the mobilizing the province's financial resources in the field of IWM and combating desertification, and as Khuzestan has paid its debt to the country, we should also pay our debt to this province."

In another part of his remarks, Head of FRWO referring to direct results of IWM interventions in reduction of flood damages and erosion significantly, reiterated: "IWM operations reduce the average water erosion of the country-which is more than 16 tons per hectare annually- to 9 tons per hectare, which is an impressive performance."

According to Dr. Massoud Mansour' speech, more than 450 cities and 8,260 villages across the country are prone to floods. In other words, out of 125 million areas of the country that need integrated watershed management measures , 27 million hectares are critical flood areas in the country that this number of rural towns are located in these areas, which IWM operations reduce the average flood damage by 70%.

He described the floods that occurred in the last 30 years as more than 7,000 floods and said: "Each flood has caused an average damage of 400 billion RLs."

According to Deputy Minister and Head of FRWO's remarks, there are 40,400 qanats in the country, which 55% to 60% of them are moving towards water shortage; nevertheless, about 9,800 qanats were filled with water by IWM measures.