BAGHDAD

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Alaa Nour El-Din, 41, says about one of the dusty nights that Baghdad witnessed earlier this month that it was one of the worst things she had experienced in her life, as she watched her two daughters suffocate and could not give them anything to help them breathe, and she shivered in fear every time she heard a dust storm coming .

Iraqis live in a state of anticipation and apprehension with every dust storm, after recent weeks witnessed unprecedented storms that disrupted airports and many state departments and caused thousands of people to suffocate and overcrowded hospitals.

Two daughters of Alaa, who suffer from asthma and during dust storms, have to go to the hospital (Al-Jazeera Net)

confused mother

Alaa and her husband face daily terror during dust storms that harm their two daughters with chronic asthma, so she recalls in horror what happened with them about two weeks ago when she and her family went out in the evening outside the house while her eldest daughter stayed at home to study, while they were abroad, her youngest daughter suffered a suffocation attack, so they had to In order to save her, he went directly to the hospital, where she stayed all night.

Meanwhile, the mother contacted her eldest daughter at home and learned that she was also experiencing a suffocation attack, but she was able to relatively help herself by soaking a piece of cloth with lukewarm water to filter the air, even a little.

Alaa says that she is now more ready to help her two daughters, after many waves of storms, as the orange-colored dust attacked Iraqi cities more than 8 times in two months.

She added, "With each dust wave, I would take my daughter into their room, close all the outlets, and serve them food and drink, because the atmosphere of the closed room is less polluted than the spacious apartment."

Alaa today fears for her youngest son, who also began to suffer from allergic attacks like his two sisters, and she prays to God to rid Iraq of this crisis, expressing her fear of the negative effects of the medicines that her children take.

Aref is forced to go out in his taxi to earn a living for his family despite sandstorms (Al Jazeera Net)

Dust and taxi

Fouad Aref, 53, is a taxi driver who cannot go out or provide for his family with every dust storm in the country.

He seems sad as he confirms - to Al Jazeera Net - that like all earners and those who depend on daily sustenance, it becomes obvious that they sit at home for two days or more with each sandstorm.

Aref says that visibility is lacking in light of the storms that the country has witnessed;

Nevertheless, he takes the risk of going out in order to get his family's food, but often returns to no avail as the streets are empty of pedestrians.

After a gamble lasting hours, Arif enters his house covered in dust;

On his face and clothes, his wife rushes to help him, even though she has asthma and is forced to use an oxygen tube.

Aref tries to make use of the days of the sunrise and the use of their hours before the storms return to earn his livelihood, so he goes out to work at dawn and returns after midnight.

Someone is riding his motorcycle during a sandstorm in a street in Iraq (Al-Jazeera Net)

Termination

As for Ali Al-Sudani (28 years), he works in two different jobs to meet the demands of a difficult life;

He works with the Ministry of Electricity at night, and when his shift ends, he works in a shop.

He told Al Jazeera Net that he finished his work in the Ministry of Electricity at eight o'clock in the morning and wanted to go straight to the shop after that, but a sandstorm did not enable him to do so, as he relied on a motorcycle for his movements, "which is often a source of curse in these storms," ​​according to what he says. He waited for the storm to end, and then went to the shop, but it was too late, so he was surprised by the shop owner asking him for the key and not returning to work.

A hospital prepared to receive suffocation cases (Reuters)

medical alert

The chief resident physician at Al-Kindi Hospital in Baghdad, Dr. Saif Ali, told Al-Jazeera Net that recent weeks have witnessed a mobilization of medical staff in preparation for receiving cases affected by dust storms, as beds, oxygen devices, all safety equipment and health assistance are being prepared.

He added that the Operations Department is developing an emergency plan, and mobilizing all medical and nursing cadres, so everyone should attend hospitals to receive patients in respiratory emergency wards equipped with central oxygen, and vital activities are monitored and treatment is given from the emergency pharmacy.

Dr. Seif pointed out that most of the cases that come to the hospital due to dust storms are elderly people, and people who have a history of respiratory diseases.

Faleh is a photojournalist whose work compels him to document reality to get out in sandstorms (Al Jazeera Net)

trouble career

Photojournalist Hussein Faleh believes that his work in photojournalism requires him to search for images that convey reality, which forces him to go out in dusty weather and exposes him to health risks.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera Net, he said, "I took pictures of the city of Basra (south of the country), which was covered by the dust storm and paralyzed movement in its streets. Dust that got into my respiratory system.

What made matters worse, according to Faleh, was that he needed to commute to do his work by motorbike to get to different places faster.

He added that when dust storms blow in the city of Basra, only the earners, street vendors and some young people remain in the street despite the bad weather, and because it is an area where many of its residents depend, especially in places near the Shatt al-Arab, on fishing, many fishermen were forced to return to their homes because of the bad weather. without earning their living.

Moataz warned that Iraq may be on the verge of a climate catastrophe in the absence of measures to stop desertification in the country (Al Jazeera Net)

Solution

Haider Moataz, Dean of the American Institute for Biological and Health Studies, explains the causes and factors of dust storms, and their sudden entry into the governorates of Iraq, indicating through his speech to Al Jazeera Net that dust storms suffocated thousands, so many tasks fall on the shoulders of Iraqi ministries.

Among these tasks is "planting millions of trees, to equalize and balance the level of orchards bulldozing that has occurred in Iraq in recent years, as well as issuing a law prohibiting the bulldozing of orchards in agricultural areas," says Dr. Haider Moataz.

Building green spaces is one of the things that Dr. Haider spoke about, noting that these spaces will form natural buffers around cities and reduce the speed of dust spreading and emission.

He shows to Al Jazeera Net that the decline in river levels, the drying up of some of them, and the decline in groundwater emerging in lakes and oases are also major reasons that contribute to the increase in desertification.

He added, "The Council of Ministers must provide the equivalent of 3 billion dinars for green belts and sand dunes stabilization, and the Ministry of Water Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Planning must work out international protocols to control Iraq's waters with the countries from which the Tigris and Euphrates rivers originate, before the disaster strikes."