Rabat – Kuwait and Iraq have shut down airports and other public buildings on Monday as they face huge sandstorms.
Emad Al Juluwi, Kuwait Civil Aviation’s Deputy Director General for Air Navigation Services Affairs said flights will be rescheduled and air traffic will resume once the storms subside.
Usually traffic-heavy streets have also been left deserted, with the dirt storms casting an orange hue over the region.
In Iraq, over 1,000 people were taken to the hospital over respiratory issues directly related to the storms, the Health Ministry told AFP.
The previous two sandstorms that happened over the past month sent nearly 10,000 people to the hospital and killed one.
The weather phenomenon has been getting increasingly frequent in the region, with other countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE reporting massive sandstorms over the past two months.
The storms have been associated with deforestation, water scarcity, rising temperatures, and other consequences of climate change.
With Iraq being considered one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the consequences of climate change, the environment ministry had warned that the country could endure over 300 days of sandstorms a year by 2050.
Experts have called for more vegetation in the region, and protecting already vegetated areas, as trees can act as windbreak and protect cities and other dense regions from the storms.
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