Iraq hit by dust storm

Iraq on Sunday was yet again covered in a thick sheet of orange as it suffered
the latest in a series of dust storms that have become increasingly common.

Dozens were hospitalized with respiratory problems in the center and the west
of the country.

A thick layer of orange dust settled across streets and vehicles, seeping into
people’s homes in the capital Baghdad.

Flights were grounded due to poor visibility at airports serving Baghdad and
the Shiite holy city of Najaf, with the phenomenon expected to continue into
Monday, according to the weather service.

“Flights have been interrupted at the airports of Baghdad and Najaf due to the
dust storm,” the spokesman for the civil aviation authority, Jihad Al-Diwan,
told AFP.

Visibility was cited at less than 500 meters (550 yards), with flights
expected to resume once weather improves.

Hospitals in Najaf received 63 people suffering from respiratory problems as a
result of the storm, a health official said, adding that the majority had left
after receiving appropriate treatment.

Another 30 hospitalizations were reported in the mostly-desert province of
Anbar in the west of the country.

Iraq was hammered by a series of such storms in April, grounding flights in
Baghdad, Najaf and Irbil and leaving dozens hospitalized.

Amer Al-Jabri, of Iraq’s meteorological office, previously told AFP that the
weather phenomenon is expected to become increasingly frequent “due to
drought, desertification and declining rainfall.”

Iraq is particularly vulnerable to climate change, having already witnessed
record low rainfall and high temperatures in recent years.

Experts have said these factors threaten to bring social and economic disaster
in the war-scarred country.

Drone Footage of a Massive Dust Storm Nasiriyah, Iraq. Source - Ruptly pic.twitter.com/NOYpBZQV57

— Zabby (@ZabbyYT) May 2, 2022

In November, the World Bank warned that Iraq could suffer a 20-percent drop in
water resources by 2050 due to climate change.

In early April, environment ministry official Issa Al-Fayad had warned that
Iraq could face “272 days of dust” a year in coming decades, according to the
state news agency INA.

The ministry said the weather phenomenon could be addressed by “increasing
vegetation cover and creating forests that act as windbreaks.”

with information from arabnews.com