Perilous
Times and Climate Change
'Red' sky worries Iran as sandstorms wreak havoc
by Staff Writers
Tehran (AFP) April 14, 2011
Iranians are worried by crippling air pollution as "unprecedented"
sandstorms mostly originating from neighbouring Iraq hit 20
provinces, forcing the shutdown of schools and government offices.
The blinding sandstorms hit western, central and southern
provinces on Wednesday due to winds blowing at high speed,
considerably reducing visibility to as low as 50 metres (yards) in
some cities.
"Unprecedented sandstorms which entered from west are the most
violent storms that have ever reached Iran," said Touraj Hemmati,
a top environmental official in the southwestern Khuzestan
province which borders Iraq.
Arman newspaper said "small Arabian sands... marked a red
situation across the country's sky."
The Kayhan daily said "yellow sand rained in Khuzestan," where the
rate of air pollution reached 70 times the permitted amount. It
said 123 people were hospitalised in the nearby province of Ilam,
also bordering Iraq.
Authorities in six western provinces, including Khuzestan and
Ilam, were forced to suspend school and university activities and
shut down government offices, Tehran Emrouz daily reported.
Air traffic was partially affected in the country, with incoming
flights and departures cancelled in some western cities, according
to Hamshahri newspaper.
State air pollution chief Amir Jamali announced on Wednesday that
Iran was hit by sandstorms three times more frequently in the
first Iranian month of Farvardin, from March 21 to April 20,
compared to the same period last year.
"We have witnessed dust storms thrice... Drought that we
experienced (last year) has intensified this phenomenon," Fars
news agency quoted him as saying.
Iranian media blamed most of the sandstorms on countries west of
the Islamic republic, particularly Iraq which is hit by
desertification and deforestation due to a decline in the flow of
water disrupted by construction of dams as well as a disappearing
agriculture industry.
Arman reported that 23 lawmakers, in a letter to President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad on Wednesday, demanded the government "resolve the
problems caused by the sandstorms in western and southern
provinces."
The weather phenomenon continued Thursday with less intensity in
the western provinces, as adverse winds blew further into the
central parts of the country. Authorities expect the sandstorms to
continue until later in the evening.