SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A new wave of sandstorm that hit Iraq sent more than 1,000 people to hospitals, spokesman of health ministry Saif al-Badr said on Monday.
The Iraqi capital Baghdad was enveloped in a giant dust cloud that left usually traffic-choked streets largely deserted and bathed in an eery orange light, according to AFP.
Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi ordered all work to cease in state-run institutions, except for health and security services.
He cited “poor climatic conditions and the arrival of violent sandstorms” in a statement issued by his office.
Air traffic was temporarily suspended at the international airports in Baghdad, Najaf, Erbil and Sulaimani, according to a statement by each airport.
Flights resumed at Baghdad, Erbil and Sulaimani shortly after the suspension.
Iraq is ranked as one of the world’s five most vulnerable nations to climate change and desertification.
The environment ministry has warned that over the next two decades Iraq could endure an average of 272 days of sandstorms per year, rising to above 300 by 2050, AFP reported.
Iraq’s previous two sandstorms sent nearly 10,000 people to hospital with respiratory problems and killed one person.
Oil-rich Iraq is known in Arabic as the land of the two rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, where the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia flourished.
Iraq’s environment ministry has said the increased sandstorms could be countered with more vegetation cover including trees that act as windbreaks.
A major duststorm last week swept across the region, reaching Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
It left more than 1,200 people hospitalized in Riyadh alone. In Dubai, the world’s tallest building was engulfed in a cloud of dust.
Experts predict the phenomenon will worsen as climate change warps regional weather patterns, further dries out and degrades soils and speeds up desertification across much of the Middle East.
