SULAIMANI (ESTA) — At least one person died in Iraq and more than 5,000 were treated in hospitals on Thursday for respiratory ailments due to a sandstorm, the seventh in a month, according to the health ministry.
Iraqis awoke once again to a thick cloud of dust blanketing the sky on Thursday.
Spokesman of Iraq’s health ministry said hospitals in the country had received more than 700 patients with breathing difficulties.
Earlier, the airport serving the province of Sulaimani in the Kurdistan Region suspended flights due to the dust storm.
Iraq has seen an increasing number of dust, sand and windstorms in recent years, including several in recent weeks. Most Iraqis say they cannot remember experiencing so many storms in such a short space of time.
Iraq’s summers are getting hotter, hitting record temperatures of at least 52 degrees Celsius in the past two years.
The country’s agriculture sector, dependent largely on the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, has also suffered from drought and rising heat. Iraq’s 2020-2021 rainfall season was the second driest in 40 years, according to the United Nations.
In early April, a government official warned Iraq could face “272 days of dust” a year in coming decades, according to AFP.
The environment ministry said the weather phenomenon could be addressed by “increasing vegetation cover and creating forests that act as windbreaks”.
