(Baghdad) A thick coat of orange dust floated on Sunday over Baghdad, hit by yet another sandstorm that led to the temporary closure of two international airports in Iraq, where these climatic phenomena are only getting worse.
Posted at 9:10 a.m.
Updated at 2:23 p.m.
Dozens of people with respiratory problems have gone to hospitals in the center and west of the country to receive adequate treatment.
In the capital Baghdad shrouded in an orange cloud, thick layers of sand settled on the streets and on cars, seeping into homes.
The same dust shrouds southern regions of the semi-desert country, including the province of Nasiriyah, with meteorological services forecasting a continuation of the storm until Monday, according to the state news agency INA.
Citing visibility “less than 500 meters”, Baghdad International Airport announced the interruption of air traffic.
“Flights were interrupted at Baghdad and Najaf airports (center) due to the dust storm,” Civil Aviation spokesman Jihad al-Diwan told AFP. “Air traffic will resume as usual if weather conditions improve. »
Sandstorms have only worsened in recent weeks in Iraq, one of the five countries in the world most vulnerable to climate change and desertification.
On Sunday, hospitals in Najaf, a Shiite holy city located south of Baghdad, received 63 people who suffered from respiratory discomfort “due to the storm” who, for the most part, left after treatment, according to a local official from the Department of Health. Health.
In the largely desert province of Al-Anbar (west), 30 similar cases have been reported.
In April alone, at least five dust storms hit Iraq, sometimes forcing airports in Baghdad, Najaf and Erbil in Kurdistan to briefly suspend flights and resulting in hospitalizations for respiratory problems.
During the next two decades, Iraq should experience “272 days of dust” per year and in 2050, the threshold of 300 days per year will be reached, assured in early April a senior official of the Ministry of the Environment, Issa al-Fayyad , quoted by INA.
In November, the World Bank estimated that this country could experience a 20% drop in its water resources by 2050.
Among the measures needed to combat sand and dust storms, the ministry cited “increasing vegetation cover and creating forests that act as windbreaks with appropriate trees.”