Iraq: Everything is "the color of dirt"

[size=52]Iraq: Everything is "the color of dirt"[/size]

In light of the continuing waves of sandstorms...and fears of an “environmental displacement”
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"The Martyrs' Bridge" during the dust storm that hit Baghdad yesterday (EPA)
Baghdad: Fadel Al-Nashmi
[size=45]Dust storms were not an emergency in Iraq throughout its near and long history, but they were also not as intense, frequent and persistent as it is today. This has become frightening and worrying for most of the population groups that are affected economically, healthily, socially and security-wise, as a result of the storm waves carrying the red sands of the desert that turn the streets, houses and trees of cities into lumps of dust.[/size]
[size=45]Last Thursday, the Ministry of Health recorded 5,000 cases of suffocation and one death as a result of dust storms.[/size]
[size=45]The Minister of Environment, Jassem Al-Falahi, warned, in statements the day before yesterday, of what he called the “environmental refugee phenomenon,” which means that residents who live on the outskirts of cities and agricultural areas are forced to leave their areas and head to large cities as a result of drought and continuous dust waves.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Falahi added that "the increase in dust rates due to the increase in desertification and climatic changes is one of the most important challenges we face, not only because of high temperatures, but also because of drought and the decline in water revenues from upstream countries."[/size]
[size=45]He stressed that "environmental displacement will burden the ministries, especially as it will lead to building slums and have social, health and security repercussions."[/size]
[size=45]Despite the minister's talk about his ministry's preparation of a plan to confront climate changes, most Iraqis do not rely much on progress plans from this or that ministry in light of the deficit and almost complete decline that the country has been witnessing for years in all fields.[/size]
[size=45]Yesterday, Saturday, the General Authority for Meteorology suggested that the dust wave would end next Monday.[/size]
[size=45]The latest causes of Iraqi pessimism related to the environmental aspect are increasing day after day. In addition to the decline in water resources, drought, dust waves and weak government performance to confront all of this, a secret report recently revealed by one of the American security agencies related to national security came to complicate matters regarding Iraq’s environmental future, after the report stated that Iraq would be among the 11 countries around the world with the worst Most affected by climate change. The report, which was transmitted by the Iraqi embassy in Washington to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in turn to the Council of Ministers, which circulated to all ministries due to its danger, indicates that the eleven countries, including Iraq, are exposed during the next twenty years to “the danger in the areas of energy, food and water, which in turn will lead to an increase in local conflicts.” and regionalism, in addition to an increase in drought, heat and the deterioration of infrastructure.”[/size]
[size=45]The waves of dust and the decline of the country’s water resources these days are of exceptional importance to most Iraqi citizens. Yesterday, a video spread showing a young man running in the middle of the Tigris River below Al-Jumhuriya Bridge in Baghdad, in a frightening indication of the drop in river levels.[/size]
[size=45]Also, on social media, a headline was published by the Baghdadi newspaper, Habbuz, issued in April 1934, saying that “the people of Baghdad are seeking help from the dust,” and after nearly a century, complaints and distress are repeated, not only by the residents of the capital. Rather, most of the population of the western, eastern and southern governorates of the country. Despite the “mud” character that characterized the Southern Mesopotamian civilization, unlike the northern civilization or the stone Nile Valley civilization, the recent waves of dust have already become a nightmare that disturbs everyone’s life. Housewives these days are complaining that their efforts to clean their homes go to waste as a result Dust storms that have been going on for weeks, putting additional burdens on them, in addition to the burdens of living, working and managing the house.[/size]
[size=45]While the owner of a flock of sheep in Wasit Governorate complained that his sheep could not eat plants covered with thick soil, a photographer in Babil Governorate, after he took a picture from the air of his city, said that it became closer to a “cemetery” scene, after the dirt and red sand covered its buildings, streets and trees.[/size]
[size=45]For its part, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research issued a directive yesterday on the climate change index to “enhance studies that reveal climate problems and diagnose their impact in Iraq through an integrated strategic perspective.”[/size]
[size=45]Yesterday, Minister of Water Resources, Mahdi Rashid Al-Hamdani, specified the area allocated for the summer agricultural plan. Al-Hamdani said, in a press conference held in the Najaf governorate, that “the Ministry of Resources will provide water for three million dunams during the summer agricultural plan, and that one million dunams will be allocated to horticulture and horticultural support, and one million dunams will be allocated to planting vegetables and supporting the national product, and the last million dunams will be allocated to the lands that are cultivated with groundwater.” According to the approvals of the Ministries of Agriculture and Water Resources.[/size]
[size=45]Minister Al-Hamdani stated that his ministry “prioritizes securing and providing drinking water to citizens in light of the drought crisis that not only Iraq suffers from, but most of the world and neighboring countries.”[/size]
[size=45]The Ministry of Agriculture had announced, earlier, a decrease in the agricultural plan for the new year by about 50 percent from previous years, as a result of the lack of water resources.[/size]
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