Airports were closed and public services were forced to shut down today due to a severe sandstorm that hit Iraq, leaving at least a thousand people with respiratory problems before heading to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Kuwait has been hit by frequent sandstorm pic.twitter.com/phOIRSanX9
– سیدہ گلوش (@syedagulwis) May 23, 2022
In Kuwait, the international airport suspended all aircraft take-offs. For the second time in less than a week, a dense cloud of dust covered Riyadh, while the Saudi civil protection service warned that the storm would continue into the night.
Since mid-April, Iraq, one of the five countries most considered “vulnerable” to climate change, has experienced at least eight such dust and sand storms. Today in Baghdad a gray cloud of dust covered the almost deserted streets. To the south, near Najaf, the herders and their herds were found surrounded by an now familiar orange cloud.
More than a thousand people across Iraq have gone to hospitals seeking help to deal with their respiratory problems, according to Health Ministry spokesman Saif al-Badr.
Sandstorm forces closure of Iraqi airports, public buildings. #AFP
📸 @SabahAfp
📸 Ali Najafi pic.twitter.com/WXEvCu39A7– AFP Photo (@AFPphoto) May 23, 2022
The meteorological service predicts that the storm will gradually stop.
Due to “bad weather conditions and violent sandstorms”, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kazimi ordered the closure of public services, except for hospitals and security services.
Flights to Baghdad airport were suspended for a few hours because visibility did not exceed 400 meters. Arbil International Airport, in Iraqi Kurdistan, announced tonight that it was closing again “due to the dense dust” that returned late in the afternoon. Flights were also suspended in the morning.
One of the last two sandstorms to hit Iraq left one person dead and about 10,000 in need of medical attention. These are mainly the elderly, people suffering from asthma, heart or respiratory diseases.
“These dust storms generally occur in the summer, but not at the rate we’ve been seeing lately. “Suffocation cases have increased significantly compared to previous years,” said Saif al-Hamza, a doctor at a Baghdad hospital.
A new sandstorm hit Iraq on Monday, forcing the closure of airports, schools, universities and government offices across the country, officials said.
Authorities in seven of Iraq’s 18 provinces, including Baghdad, ordered the closure of government offices. pic.twitter.com/7nXrTfJcS0
– NoComment (@nocomment) May 16, 2022
According to an official from the Ministry of Environment, in the coming decades Iraq will experience “272 days of dust” per year and by 2050 these days will reach 300. Among the measures considered by the authorities is the creation of “green zones” around the cities to deal with desertification, which affects 39% of the country’s total area.
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