5th Major Sandstorm In Iraq In Less Than One Month; 100s Hospitalized With Breathing Problems
Hundreds of Iraqis have been taken to hospitals with breathing problems and Baghdad airport suspended flights for several hours as a thick sandstorm blanketed the country, the fifth to engulf Iraq within a month. Iraqi state media said most of the patients suffered respiratory issues as clinics across the country’s north and west struggled to keep up with the influx. Authorities urged citizens to stay indoors.
Iraqis awoke to an ochre-coloured sky – and a thick blanket of dust covered the roads and buildings with an orange film. Visibility was low and drivers kept car headlights on to see the road. Flights scheduled to depart overnight and on Thursday morning were postponed. They resumed by the afternoon, when the dust began to clear.
Iraq is prone to seasonal sandstorms, a type of dust storm in desert areas, but experts and officials are raising alarm over their frequency in recent years, which they say is exacerbated by record-low rainfall, desertification and climate change.
However, Azzam Alwash, head of the non-profit organisation Nature Iraq, warned that “climate change alone doesn’t give the whole picture” and that inappropriate farming practices and mismanagement of water resources had contributed to the problems. “Climate change has become a very convenient excuse for officials to avoid responsibility for not taking action over the last 20 to 40 years,” he said.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/05/iraqis-hospitalised-thick-sandstorm-blankets-iraq
