Plume of Dust Blowing Across Iraq
30.0N 48.5EA plume of dust blows southeastward across Iraq, by the Tigris-Euphrates River Valley, across the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab and over the northern end of the Persian Gulf. Iraq is considered one of the region’s most vulnerable countries to climate change and it faces a unique set of environmental challenges.
Rising environmental degradation and increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, especially sand and dust storms, take an enormous toll on socio-economic life and human development across the region.
In Iraq, the Ministry of Environment recorded 122 dust-storms and 283 dusty days and sources suggest that within the next ten years, Iraq could witness 300 dust-storms per year. These projections underscore the urgent need for a concerted regional effort to address the phenomenon today (click here for more information).