Agriculture Ministry announces a project to confront dust storms

BAGHDAD-INA

Ministry of Agriculture announced Thursday an increase in dust storms annually, and referred to the rehabilitation of 10 oases in the Western Desert.

 The Director of the Planning and Follow-up Department in the Department of Forestry and Combating Desertification of the Ministry, Sarmad Kamel, said in a statement to the Iraqi News Agency (INA): "Dust storms are increasing annually, and they are among the climatic changes that the world is going through and the drought that afflicts the region," noting that "the work of the department is in the desert areas so that the effects of dust storms are reduced, and it is also about increasing the vegetation cover in these areas.”
 
 He added, "The reason for the decrease in vegetation cover is the country's exposure to wars and dredging operations that negatively affected the atmosphere in the country, in addition to the encroachments on land and marginal agriculture, as the citizen is plowing the land and we are now in the stages of drought," pointing out, "the need for local and international efforts and  to address this.

 He stressed, "The local effort is through activating laws, working on instructions and increasing financial allocations," noting that "these allocations are insufficient and do not meet ambition, as the allocations of the Ministry of Agriculture are less than those of the rest of the ministries."
 Kamel continued, "There are security hotspots on the western side that witness the pursuit of ISIS terrorist remnants and criminal gangs by the security forces, and this prevents us from working in them, in addition to the presence of war remnants and mines that hinder our work."

 He pointed out that "the issue of green belts has many overlaps, as there are provinces that have adopted them, but there is no implementation," calling for "national solidarity and cooperation between ministries and relevant authorities to work on restoring vegetation cover to Iraq."

 Regarding the oases in the Iraqi desert, he stated, "There are 35 oases in the Western Desert that have been reduced to only 10, and we have worked to rehabilitate some of them after liberating the lands, while the rest is in the process of work," explaining that "the Hama Basin project is one of the important projects that  It serves us in harvesting water in the desert and developing vegetation cover, but it has stopped due to the security situation."