Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Khodakaram Jalali, introduces 1.2 million hectares of desert in Khuzestan Province as the main domestic source of dust storms in this region.
Continues dust storms over the last few weeks have led to the closing of schools and businesses in Khuzestan. Power and water in a number of larger cities such as Ahwaz and Abadan have also been cut off.
“Drought was the main reason for this crisis. This year, rainfall in Khuzestan province was much lower than average and this has greatly added to the dust storms”, said Jalali, “Oasification projects using different biological methods, planting seedlings, water release and moisturizing must be used to reduce these conditions”.
Meanwhile the Ministry of Agriculture has announced that currently, only 120 thousand hectares of desert in the Khuzestan province have undergone various stabilization plans. With the Presidents orders to quickly carry out the projects, by the end of the next month, the oasification of a further 40 thousand hectares of desert must be completed.
Deputy of Economic Planning at the Ministry of Agriculture, Abdollah Bakhshandeh, announced a 1.5 billion USD credit line from the National Development Fund for the oasification of 550 thousand hectares of desert in Khuzestan.
“The Government annually spends nearly $310m in Khuzestan for this purpose and with the start of the second phase of this national project, further investment will be done on agriculture in this province”, explained Bakhshandeh.
The province of Khuzestan is located in the southwest of Iran and is considered Iran’s center of gas and oil. Iran’s largest refinery is located in Abadan. This province which is located on the border was heavily damaged during the Iran-Iraq war.
