An unprecedented wave of sandstorms is hitting parts of the region, with experts blaming climate change and poor government regulations.
A sandstorm has blanketed parts of the Middle East including Iraq, Syria and Iran, sending hundreds of people to hospitals and disrupting flights in some places.
From Riyadh to Tehran, a bright orange sky and a thick veil of sand signaled another blustery day on Monday in the latest in a series of unprecedented, nearly consecutive sandstorms this year that have confused residents and raised alarms among experts and officials who Blame climate change and poor government regulation.
Sandstorms are typical in late spring and summer, spurred by seasonal winds. But this year they’ve performed in Iraq almost every week since March.
Iraqi authorities declared the day a national holiday and urged government employees and residents to stay home in anticipation of the 10th storm to hit the country in the past two months. Iraqi Health Ministry has stockpiled oxygen canisters at facilities in hard-hit areas, according to a statement.
More than 1,000 people have been hospitalized across the country with respiratory problems, Health Ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr told AFP news agency.
“It’s a regional problem, but every country has a different level of vulnerability and weakness,” said Jaafar Jotheri, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Al-Qadisiyah in Baghdad.
A child sweeps the floor of Imam Ali Shrine in Najaf, Iraq, during a sandstorm [Alaa Al-Marjani/Reuters]
In Iraq in particular, Jotheri explained, desertification, exacerbated by record-low rainfall, is contributing to the intensity of the storms. In a low-lying country with many desert regions, the impact is almost double, he said. “Because of 17 years of mismanagement of water and urbanization, Iraq has lost more than two-thirds of its green space,” he said. “That’s why Iraqis complain more than their neighbors about the sandstorms in their areas.”
In Syria, medical departments were put on alert as the sandstorm hit the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq, Syrian state TV said. Earlier this month, a similar storm in the region killed at least three people and hospitalized hundreds with breathing problems.
Bashar Shouaybi, head of the Syrian Health Ministry’s office in Deir el-Zour, told state television that hospitals are prepared and ambulances are on standby. He said they have acquired an additional 850 oxygen tanks and medicines needed to deal with patients with asthma.
Cars drive amid a heavy dust storm in Kuwait City, Kuwait [Yasser al-Zayyat/AFP]
The sky in Kuwait turned bright orange as a heavy sandstorm blanketed the country. And for the second time this month, Kuwait International Airport suspended all flights due to dust. Earlier this month, another storm forced all schools and government offices to close.
The second severe sandstorm in less than a week also swept across Saudi Arabia’s capital, Riyadh, shrouding iconic buildings like the Kingdom Center in a gray veil. Officials warned motorists to drive slowly. Emergency rooms across the city were inundated this month with 1,285 patients complaining that they couldn’t breathe properly.
Iran closed schools and government offices in the capital Tehran last week because of a sandstorm that swept across the country. The southwestern desert region of Khuzestan was hardest hit, where more than 800 people were treated for breathing difficulties.
Iran closed schools and government offices in the capital Tehran last week because of a sandstorm that swept across the country [AFP]
Dozens of flights from western Iran have been canceled or delayed. Blame for the dust storms and heavy air pollution has mounted, with a prominent environmental expert telling local media that climate change, drought and government mismanagement of water resources are to blame for the increase in sandstorms. Iran has drained its wetlands for agriculture – a common practice known to create dust in the region.
Alireza Shariat, the head of an association of Iranian water engineers, told Iran’s semi-official news agency ILNA last month that he expects sweeping dust storms to become an “annual springtime phenomenon” unlike anything Iran has seen before.