Deputy Head of Iran's Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (ICHHTO) Mohammad Hassan Talebian recounted the process and purpose of submitting 11 qanats for World Heritage Status enlistment.
The official told the reporters that the attention given to qanats is to respect the heritage, to solve the water crisis, and to move toward stable development.
"It is the first time that ICHHTO is submitting the World Heritage Status dossier jointly with other organizations, as it also affects sustainable development," said Talebian on Saturday.
The official described the process complicated as Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Energy are involved in it, and the chain of qanats will be discussed in UNESCO summit of July 2016.
An indigenous Iranian structure, a qanat is a gently sloping underground channel with a series of vertical access shafts, used to transport water from an aquifer under a hill.
Having been developed by the Persian people, the technology is seen in the fourth millennium BC in Iran and spread from there slowly westward and eastward.
YNG/ IR81783365