IRAQ AT RISK OF BEING BURIED BY SANDS OF TIME
BAGHDAD: One person is dead and more than 5000 are being treated for respiratory ailments due to a sandstorm, the seventh in a month, the health ministry said.
Duststorms have increased in frequency in Iraq in recent years, driven by soil degradation and intense droughts. Residents of six of Iraq’s 18 provinces, including Baghdad and the vast western region of Al-Anbar, woke once again to a thick cloud of dust blanketing the sky.
As the storm swept across Iraq, it shrouded the capital Baghdad and the holy city of Najaf in ghostly orange clouds of choking dust.
Those hit hardest are people suffering from chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma, and the elderly, who suffer in particular from heart ailments.
Dust and sandstorms have always occurred in the Middle East but have grown more frequent and intense in recent years, a trend that has been associated with overuse of river water, more dams, overgrazing and deforestation.
Iraq, despite its mighty Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is one of the world’s five countries most vulnerable to climate change and desertification.
The effects of low rainfall have been exacerbated as the levels of the Tigris and Euphrates drop because of upstream dams in Iran and Turkey.
In early April, a government official warned Iraq could face “272 days of dust” a year in coming decades.