Airports and public administrations closed, exams suspended in schools and universities: Iraqis found the familiar orange halo on Monday caused by a new sandstorm which forced at least 4,000 people to go to hospitals for respiratory problems.
The last such episode led to a death on May 5 from respiratory ailments which also prompted more than 5,000 people to go to hospitals for treatment.
The Iraqi Ministry of Education has announced the closure of all schools in the country and the postponement of exams until Tuesday.
University exams have also been postponed.
Since mid-April, Iraq has experienced no less than eight sandstorms in the space of a few weeks.
The authorities present Iraq as one of the five countries in the world most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and desertification.
🛰️ Seen from space ||
New sandstorm in Iraq at the beginning of the week.
Since mid-April, 8th episode.
📸AQUA, 05/16/2022 10:09 UTC pic.twitter.com/lqI8abbM7N
— Meteo-France (@meteofrance) May 16, 2022
Monday at dawn, the roofs of the city, the cars parked in the streets and even the furniture in the houses were covered with a layer of very fine yellow sand, noted AFP correspondents.
At least “4,000 cases of suffocation” have been recorded in hospitals, Health Ministry spokesman Seif al-Badr said in a statement.
"All the patients received the necessary care", according to the same source.
With each storm, the scenario repeats itself in the hospital
In the emergency room of the Sheikh Zayed hospital in Baghdad, around 20 people, mostly elderly men, are lying on beds, a mask covering the lower part of their tired faces, to help them breathe thanks to ventilators.
Since dawn, the hospital has admitted some 75 patients who have come to receive doses of oxygen, said emergency room manager Talib AbdelMoneim Nejm: "Patients of advanced age suffer from chronic illnesses, heart problems or respiratory".
Lying on his side, Hadi Saada, 70, breathes and speaks with great difficulty.
With each storm the same scenario repeats itself and this is the third time that his son Mohamed accompanies his cardiac father to the hospital.
Khaled Jassem is on his second visit.
"We have been here since eight in the morning, my father is 70 years old and suffers from heart failure, diabetes and hypertension, the dust is suffocating him", confides the son Walid.
A phenomenon that should get worse
Baghdad airport announced the resumption of air traffic in the early afternoon, after suspending flights due to "visibility of 300 meters", according to the official INA news agency.
The airport of Najaf, a holy Shiite city in the south, and that of Suleimaniya, in autonomous Kurdistan in the North, also closed for the day, according to the same source.
At least seven of the country's 18 provinces have announced the closure of public administrations, with the exception of health departments, including the capital Baghdad.
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The sandstorm should gradually dissipate in the evening, according to the meteorological services.
Over the next two decades, Iraq is expected to experience “272 dust days” per year.
In 2050 the threshold of 300 days will be reached, according to an official from the Ministry of the Environment.
Among the measures recommended to combat this phenomenon, the authorities cite “the creation of forests that act as windbreaks”.