Er³⁺-doped ZBLAN fiber lasers have been widely investigated to generate high power, high efficiency 2.8 μm mid-infrared laser. The high-power multimode 980 nm semiconductors are generally used as the convenient pump sources in Er³⁺-doped ZBLAN fiber lasers. However, longer lifetime of the lower laser level (⁴I1_3/2, 9.9 ms) compared with that of the upper laser level (⁴I1_1/2, 6.9 ms), result in severe self-terminating transition. Although highly Er-doped fibers with improved energy transfer upconversion rate can alleviate this problem to some extent, there are still significant limitations on heat load management. On the other hand, the 1.6–1.7 μm laser was used as another pump routine due to the partial spectral overlap between ground and excited state absorption (GSA and ESA) for population inversion. Even slope efficiency up to 50% was demonstrated by this pump scheme, ten meter long active fiber was needed due to the weak GSA process. To address this issue, we propose the dual-wavelength (1.5 μm and 1.7 μm) pumping technique to achieve high-efficiency 2.8 μm laser output with meter-level Er³⁺- doped ZBLAN fiber. A simulation model is established for the dual-wavelength pumping scheme. This scheme combines the strong GSA process in the 1.5 μm band and the strong ESA process in the 1.7 μm band to accelerate the population accumulation on the lower laser level and promote the absorption of the 1.7 μm pump and thereafter the conversion to 2.8 μm laser over much shorter gain fiber. By considering the intensity of ground state absorption and emission of the ⁴I_15/2→⁴I_13/2 transition, the pump at 1470 nm is selected to efficiently populate the Er³⁺ to the lower laser level. Then the second pump is optimized to the wavelength of 1680 nm to achieve rapid particle extraction from the lower laser level and realize population inversion for efficient 2.8 μm laser generation over meter long gain fiber. With the optimized pump wavelengths, the 2.8 μm fiber laser simulation based on 0.5 m 1.5 mol.% erbium-doped fluoride fiber shows that, when a 20 W 1680 nm laser is used as the main pump source, only a 1.2 W 1470 nm auxiliary pump is required to achieve 12.2 W of the 2.8 μm laser output, with an optical efficiency as high as 58.2%. Furthermore, the fiber laser simulation indicates that when the powers of the two pump satisfy the relationship of P_λ2=20P_λ1-4, the output power of the laser system can reach the maximum value. The dual-wavelength pumping technique proposed in this paper allows for high-efficiency 2.8 μm mid-infrared laser generation with meter-long Er³⁺-doped fluoride fiber, which significantly improves the laser system integration and economic benefits.