Looks like something out of a sci-fi movie, style Dunes. The images that reach us from Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, are impressive: the whole region is bathed in a yellow or orange veil, the dust is such that in several cities visibility is reduced to a few meters . The aerial images are also spectacular: we see the sandstorms advancing and engulfing the landscape.
Iraq (38 million inhabitants) is the most affected country: non-essential activities were all stopped on Monday 23 May. Only the health services and the security forces continue to work. Residents have been sent home, administrations have closed, car traffic is almost reduced to zero. Air traffic is suspended. The storm affects both Baghdad the capital and the big cities of Erbil in the North or Najaf in the South. More than 1,000 people have been hospitalized, health services are stockpiling oxygen canisters, especially for asthmatics.
Further east, Iran has been affected in turn since Tuesday, May 24: schools, universities, public services have closed there too. Further south, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are not spared. In Kuwait, air flights were stopped for 3 hours yesterday. In Riyadh, the Saudi capital, the authorities expect almost zero visibility in the coming days.
The most worrying thing is the repetition of the phenomenon. Sandstorms are quite common in this region of the world, especially in this season, in late spring and early summer. But this year, it doesn’t stop. In Iraq, it is therefore the 9th storm in a month and a half: in other words, more than one a week. Since mid-April, these repeated episodes have caused the hospitalization of more than 10,000 people. In Iran, it’s only the third storm in a month, but it’s already a lot.
It is difficult not to see a link with global warming, which is known to increase the frequency of extreme weather phenomena. According to the Ministry of the Environment in Baghdad, Iraq, by 2040, is expected to experience more than 270 days of dust per year, in other words 3 days out of 4, then up to 300 days per year in 2050.
There are also explanations very specific to the region, the direct consequence of political decisions: it is the problem of the use of water resources and deforestation. In 20 years, it is estimated that Iraq has lost 2/3 of its plant surface: urbanization is accelerating, water is poorly managed, so wetlands are shrinking. The desert now occupies 40% of the total area of the country. The same phenomenon is observed in Iran.
In the background, there is a lively dispute with the big neighbor to the north, Turkey. Its responsibility is pointed out because of the many Turkish dams upstream of the two major rivers that feed the region: the Tigris to the east and the Euphrates to the west. Iran accuses Turkey of blocking water and accelerating desertification in countries further south. This desertification increases drought and sandstorms, because previously the forest areas acted as windbreaks. It’s a vicious circle.