Every year, 7 million people are dying due to natural and artificial air pollution
Ali Selajgeh at the international meeting to deal with sandstorms and dust He stated: Since 2000, the number of droughts and their extent has increased by 30%. According to the latest global findings and the results published by the United Nations Scape Agency, over the last 50 years, about 50% of climate events have been related to drought.
He continued: Since 1997, there have been about 121 thousand billion dollars in economic losses due to drought. It is predicted that by 2030, we will have about 700 million people migrating due to drought in the world.
Referring to the problem of water shortage in the world, the head of the Environmental Protection Organization said: Currently, 3.2 billion people in the world are facing the problem of water shortage, and research shows that this amount will reach 5 billion people by 2050, which is three quarters of the population. It is the whole world.
According to Selajghe, 5 billion people in the world will not have access to water for at least one month a year.
Referring to the dryness of the world’s wetlands and large lakes, he said: According to the latest articles published by science, the world’s great lakes and huge water sources have dried up, which indicates an increase in dust sources.
The Vice President continued: According to the announcement of the Secretary General of the United Nations, 7 million people are dying every year due to natural and artificial air pollution. These statistics force us to think of a solution. Considering these problems, the president ordered to use all national capacities to solve this problem.
He continued: Based on this order, the Environmental Protection Organization started their consultations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which led to the first regional dust meeting on July 21 with the presence of neighboring, aligned and Muslim countries in Tehran, and as a result of these consultations July 21 was registered as the International Dust Day in the United Nations calendar.
The head of the Environmental Protection Organization added: “Due to the great achievements of the United Nations Regional Summit, while appreciating the Islamic Republic of Iran, our country chose our country as the host of the International Summit on Combating Sand and Dust Storms.”
Selajgeh continued: Considering that the environment knows no borders, the countries welcomed our invitation and 55 countries and international agencies attended the summit out of the 55 countries that were invited. In this context, the United Nations was also with us, and I would like to thank Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Stephen Prizner, the United Nations representative in Iran.
He added: Since the President of the 13th People’s Government emphasized on the implementation of the results of these meetings, practical measures have also been started. For example, enforcement operations have started in 4 Iraqi countries and 2 neighboring provinces of Iran.
According to the vice president, based on the information of ESCAP agency, the countries of Turkmenistan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Iran are the most affected by dust.
Selajgeh emphasized: We hope that the final result of this summit will be a relief for all countries on the way to deal with dust and that the requirements of the United Nations resolution will bring the countries together. In this regard, 15 international institutions also have duties that they must fulfill their duties.
He pointed out: Our expectation from the United Nations is that cruel and unilateral sanctions should not affect the cooperation of the United Nations with different countries, including Iran.