World Habitat Day Marked in Tehran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The World Habitat Day, which falls on the first Monday of October each year, was observed in Tehran in a ceremony attended by senior Iranian officials and the representatives of the United Nations in Iran.
The National Habitat Committee (NHC) in Iran hosted the ceremony for the celebration of World Habitat Day in Negarestan Garden in Tehran on October 2, 2023 under the theme of “Resilient Urban Economies: Cities as Drivers of Growth and Recovery”, the News.mrud.ir website reported.
The ceremony is held in cooperation with Iran Urban Regeneration Corporation, Tehran Municipality, and the UN-Habitat Office in Tehran in order to share experiences on the improvement of human settlement and the well-being of people in urban and municipal areas particularly in dilapidated urban areas and informal settlements.
At the beginning of the ceremony, there was a video message from the Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN‐Habitat), Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash, and also Tehran’s Mayor Alireza Zakani, which was read by the Secretary General of Asian Mayor Forum Hamid Reza Gholamzadeh.
Secretariat of the National Habitat Committee (NHC) Arman Khoorsand, Iran's Deputy Minister and Managing Director of Urban Regeneration Corporation Mohammad Aeeni, and Head of Tehran Renovation Organization Mehdi Hedayat delivered separate speeches on the recent initiatives for improvement of urban areas and regeneration of dilapidated urban areas.
Similarly, pointing to the current 1800 projects in dilapidated urban areas, Aeeni said that since August 2021 when the 13th Government came to office, the renovation of 153,000 units has been started and by now 49,000 units have already been finished.
In this prestigious event, ‘the National Strategy for ‘Empowerment and Regularizing Informal Settlement’ which has been compiled by Iran Urban Regeneration Corporation was presented. This document is now finalized and approved following the last two previous ones. In this document which will be notified to the related organizations in Iran before long, the major approach to regeneration is an integrated urban management system, public participation, and facilitation through incentive packages and land tools.
Also, representatives from the Japanese and South Korean embassies as well as Representative of the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) Alexander Fedulov, the representative of United Nations Resident Coordinator Office (UNRCO) to Iran, the representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and the representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Iran attended the ceremony.
The United Nations designated the first Monday of October of every year as World Habitat Day to reflect on the state of our habitats, and on the basic right of all to adequate shelter.
