Publish Date: 31 August 2015 - 15:29

TEHRAN, Aug. 31 (MNA) – Head of Iran's Department of Environment (DOE) has said that her office is working hard to revive wetlands, including Hamun.

On the sidelines of a meeting of the Cabinet, Masoumeh Ebtekar stated that, “during the visit of Ashraf Ghani to Tehran we had a very good meeting where I suggested the formation of a working group to revive Hamun international wetland which was welcomed by him.”

“One third of Lake Hamun is located in Afghanistan and two third of it belongs to Iran; this wetland has a great significance for both countries because if revived, it can help people’s lives and agriculture specifically by blocking dust in the air and y purifying and filtering harmful waste from water,” said the official.

“The 11th government is seriously working to revive wetlands and this project requires long-term planning,” concluded Ebtekar.

Hamun Lake is a wetland on the Iran-Afghanistan border which has gone dry because scanty precipitation around the year 2000 caused snow-covered area in the Helmand Basin to decline severely.