These days, Tehran and many other cities across Iran—from east to west—are engulfed by dust storms. According to experts, this phenomenon signals a much deeper environmental crisis.
In recent days, not only major cities such as Tehran but also most western and southwestern provinces of Iran have once again been affected by intense waves of dust and particulate pollution. At times, the air quality index has reached 500, triggering serious health warnings for the public.
The head of Tehran’s Environmental Protection Organization has stated that the dust storms will persist in the capital and most provinces until the end of summer.
Just a few days ago, Somayeh Rafiei, head of the regime’s Majlis (parliament) environmental faction, admitted that the National Headquarters for Combating Dust Storms has failed to prevent the expansion of domestic dust storm sources. She stated that not only has the problem not been solved, but the situation has become “worse and more severe.”
Whatever the specifics of the dust crisis in Iran may be, experts agree that dust storms are a symptom and indicator of a far larger environmental catastrophe in the country.
Only a portion—estimated at around 30%—of the dust storms originate within Iran. The rest largely come from the west and south, including Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and the African Sahara. Territorial degradation in these areas, combined with intensified climate change, has significantly increased the inflow of dust into Iran.
The domestically-generated dust stems from “territorial degradation within Iran.” Desertification, soil erosion, drying wetlands and plains, and land subsidence are among the factors contributing to this degradation.
Iran’s regime has yet to submit any report to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as the COP conference. This event is held annually, where countries present their environmental performance and progress to the international community.
Dust Storms: A Constant Affliction and Chronic Disease
According to experts, dust storms are a constant affliction and a chronic illness that severely reduce people’s quality of life. When combined with other factors such as water shortages, power outages, poverty, and insecurity, their destructive effects are amplified.
Certainly, citizens in countries like Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates—who also face dust storms—have far more resilience compared to people in provinces like Baluchestan or Khuzestan in Iran. This highlights the fact that Iran’s regime has failed to provide even the minimal conditions for public resilience, while constantly repeating the claim that solving the dust crisis is impossible without regional cooperation.
Officials of Iran’s regime should ask themselves: who exactly is supposed to cooperate with them? Iraq or Syria—both of which are embroiled in their own domestic crises? Currently, the Iranian regime does not even have sovereignty over its own airspace. So how can it engage in any meaningful regional collaboration with these or other countries to manage the dust storm crisis?
Forty-seven years ago, the Iranian regime launched its so-called path to “self-sufficiency” under the slogan “Neither East nor West.” In the years following the Iran-Iraq war, it prioritized agricultural expansion under the direction of “Jahad-e Sazandegi” (a regime institution ostensibly tasked with rural development).
But this policy proved costly, and it was nature that paid the price—through unrestrained dam construction, failure to allocate water rights to wetlands, land-use changes, and the destruction of forests and pastures. Dust storms are one of the consequences of this misguided policy.
Uncontrolled dam-building and large-scale extraction from water sources have dried up wetlands like Hamoun and Hoor al-Azim. Meanwhile, unsustainable farming, deep plowing, and the conversion of rangelands into croplands have loosened and destabilized the soil. Overgrazing has destroyed plant cover, and the movement of industrial vehicles—as well as remnants of the eight-year war with Iraq in some areas—have further prepared the soil for erosion. The lack of pebbles and vegetation has cleared the path for winds to carry away the soil.
Dust storms are not made up of just soil—they often originate from wetlands contaminated by industrial and domestic wastewater. As a result, the dust particles that spread through different Iranian cities vary and may carry differing levels of toxicity. These dust particles contain heavy and toxic metals.
Iran’s regime must allow at least half of the country’s renewable water resources to follow their natural course into plains and wetlands. This would require diverting 50 billion cubic meters of water annually from the agricultural sector back to nature—effectively shutting down half of Iran’s agricultural activities, while modernizing the remaining half to align with the country’s new climate realities. But the regime will not do this. The IRGC and regime-affiliated institutions derive the most profit from the destruction of Iran’s environment and pay little attention to the country’s future.
