Posted13 June 2022, 10:11
Monday morning, a thick white dust covered Baghdad and its surroundings. Flights have been suspended.
The phenomenon has been recurrent lately. Here, May 23.
AFP
Baghdad International Airport was temporarily closed on Monday as a new dust storm hit the Iraqi capital. This phenomenon has highly amplified, in recent months, in this semi-desert country. Since mid-April, Iraq has experienced no less than ten sand and dust storms in the space of a few weeks. The authorities present Iraq as one of the five countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and desertification.
Monday morning, a thick white dust covered Baghdad and its surroundings. The visibility did not exceed a few hundred meters. As a result, the management of the airport of the Iraqi capital announced the temporary suspension of flights.
In Najaf, a holy Shiite city in central Iraq which welcomes millions of pilgrims from all over the world every year, the airport briefly suspended operations in the morning, before reopening following a few hours, thanks to a improving conditions. Airports have already been forced to briefly suspend flights several times in recent weeks.
In May, sandstorms that hit Iraq killed one person while thousands of people had to be treated in hospital for respiratory problems. Iraq, which is entering a scorching summer with temperatures approaching 50 degrees, is expected to experience “272 days of dust” per year in the next two decades and in 2050, the threshold of 300 days will be reached, according to an official from the Ministry of the Environment.
In early June, Iraqi President Barham Saleh called for making the fight once morest climate change “a national priority for Iraq, because it is an existential threat for future generations”.
(AFP)
