14 provinces in Iran are currently under the siege of a dust storm, and the continuation of air pollution in Markazi Province has led to the closure of offices and educational institutions.
The country’s Meteorological Organization announced that on July 24 and 25, 14 provinces are in a yellow weather condition due to strong winds, dust storms, and decreased air quality.
According to the organization’s report, these provinces include South Khorasan, North Khorasan, Razavi Khorasan, Kerman, Sistan and Baluchestan, Yazd, Charmahal and Bakhtiari, Isfahan, Semnan, Qom, Markazi, Tehran, Khuzestan, and Bushehr.
The Meteorological Organization advised respiratory patients, the elderly, children, and desert travelers in these provinces to avoid non-essential commute.
Earlier, Sahar Tajbakhsh, the head of the country’s Meteorological Organization, told the regime’s official IRNA news agency about the cause of the recent increase in sandstorms, especially in the eastern part of the country: “One of these serious hazards could be climate change, which, in case of strong winds, turns into very damaging sandstorms.”
In Markazi Province, the Emergency Dust Task Force, decided to declare the offices in this province closed on July 24 due to the prediction of continued air pollution and the persistence of particles less than 10 microns.
According to this decision, all classes of institutions and schools are also closed, and selected branches of banks are also on limited service on this day, according to the announcement of the Commission for Coordination of Banks and Insurances.
35,000 hectares of dust centers in Tehran province
In Tehran Province, offices and schools have not been closed, but environmental officials have also warned of an increase in dust storms in this province.
Zahra Ebadati, the human environment deputy of the Tehran Environmental Protection Agency, told the state-run ILNA news agency: “There are about 100,000 hectares of desert areas in Tehran Province.”
She added, “Some of these areas, about 35,000 hectares, are considered critical centers of wind erosion.”
According to the government official, in conditions of strong winds, these centers inside Tehran Province also affect the increase in dust concentration in the province, like the centers outside the province and the cross-border centers.
“Although the conditions of rainfall were better this year compared to last year, the amount of rainfall in Tehran Province and neighboring provinces has still significantly decreased in comparison to the long-term average,” Ebadi continued.
The difficulty of supplying water to reforestation and vegetation planted in desert areas of Tehran Province is a factor that, according to the deputy of the Tehran Environmental Protection Agency, has caused the implementation of stabilization plans for dust centers in the province to proceed slowly.
On July 18, Abbas Shahsavani, the head of the air and climate health department at the Ministry of Health, told the regime’s ISNA news agency that in addition to eastern, southeastern, western, and southwestern provinces facing dust storms, this problem has also arisen in central regions such as Fars, Qom, and Arak.
“In general, almost half of our country’s population is facing dust storms that have a detrimental effect on people’s health.” He added.
The fact that half of Iran’s population is affected by dust storms comes as on July 13, the director general of natural resources and watersheds in Isfahan province announced that 50,000 hectares are added annually to the “critical dust centers” in this province located in central Iran.
The head of the air and climate health department at the Ministry of Health also stated that dust storms lead to an increase in the number of hospitalized cases and heart and respiratory diseases, as well as having a negative effect on human vision.
On June 17, the director general of desert affairs at the Department of Natural Resources also announced that one million hectares are added annually to Iran’s deserts.
Vahid Jafariyan had previously stated that the drying of wetlands and their transformation into “micro dust centers” is one of the factors contributing to desertification in Iran.
This comes as the acting head of the Department of Natural Resources and Watersheds in Iran announced in July 2022 that desert provinces in the country had increased by 66 percent, and that areas of crisis for dust had also expanded by about 43 percent.
This official said that the number of desert provinces in Iran had increased from 14 at the beginning of the 20-year vision plan to about 21 provinces by last year.
