TEHRANTIMES-TEHRAN (CHN) -- In a meeting with Dr. Andr?Sz?si-Nagy, deputy assistant director-general for Natural Sciences at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), Rasul Zargar deputy minister for water affairs in Iran?s Ministry of Energy gave a comprehensive report about the activities of this committee.
  
   ?We have submitted the biennial program of the committee to UNESCO?s division of water sciences, according to which we are planning our activities,? said Zargar to CHN.
  
   In this meeting which was held with presence of Abdin Salih, director of UNESCO?s Cluster Office in Tehran, Ali Asghar Semsar-Yazdi, chairman of the International Center on Qanats (aqueducts) which was established by Iran with cooperation of UNESCO in city of Yazd, central Iran, in March 2005, gave a comprehensive report from the activities of this center. Expressing his satisfaction with the achievements of this center, Sz?si-Nagy made some suggestions for improving the activities of this center.
  
   According to Semsar-Yazdi, Iranian National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage will have a joint cooperation with UNESCO?s division of water sciences on holding international conferences, workshops, restoring and reviving historical aqueducts in Iran.
  
   Iran has taken some useful steps towards water management as well as renovating some old techniques in irrigation with a special focus on aqueducts with cooperation of UNESCO during the last years. The most recent event was organizing the International Conference on Water Management in the Islamic Countries which was held during 19th and 20th of February 2007 in Tehran, in an attempt to discuss the main challenges the Islamic countries have to confront with regarding the issue of water management. During the conference some strategies and priorities on water resources planning and management was suggested.
  
   According to the International Center on Qanats, Iran has 30,000 aqueducts in use. Based on historical evidence aqueducts were first built in Iran some 2500 years ago and then the culture spread to Europe during the Middle Ages and then to America.