Increase in Casualty Numbers; Dust Storm Sends '1059 People' to Hospitals in Sistan and Baluchestan

A government official in Sistan and Baluchestan province announced on Tuesday that the recent 'storm and dust' has sent '1,059 people' from the region to hospitals and health centers. According to domestic media, Majid Mohibi, the head of the crisis management office in Sistan and Baluchestan, stated that the occurrence of dust storms and 'dispersal of dust particles' in the Sistan region, which includes five counties: Zabol, Zahedan, Hamun, Hirmand, and Nimruz, began on July 1. This official from the Islamic Republic stated that '913 people' received outpatient treatment and '145 people' were hospitalized due to the 'severity of symptoms' caused by this phenomenon. Despite the fact that Sistan and Baluchestan province periodically faces strong winds known as the '120-day winds' starting from the beginning of summer each year, which sometimes bring dust and air pollution several times above standard levels, no serious measures have ever been taken to counter the human consequences of this issue. In addition to periodic winds, due to a noticeable decrease in the province's water resources, the drying up of the international Hamun wetland and the Hirmand River, as well as the loss of many local water bodies known as 'Hootak' due to lack of water, the damage caused by storms and strong winds has significantly increased. In this regard, the head of the crisis management office in Sistan and Baluchestan also acknowledged that 'respiratory, cardiac, and eye problems' have been the main issues for patients visiting health centers in the Sistan region during this time. Although this storm began days ago, due to the lack of necessary infrastructure and planning to mitigate the effects of such weather events, the number of casualties who have managed to visit health centers has increased daily; in the first four days, this number was 330, and now it has reached over a thousand. During a 'specialized meeting on water, development, and climate migration' held on June 19 by the 'Iran Migration Observatory' in Tehran, experts announced that in addition to a '76 percent' reduction in the country's renewable water resources over the past half-century, Iran ranks last in policy-making and performance related to climate change and internal migration caused by events in this sector. Kazem Kordvani, a sociologist, stated in an interview with the Persian section of 'Voice of America' that between 2011 and 2016, more than '4 million people' of Iranians were forced to change their residence within the country, citing 'poverty, unemployment, and climate issues' as the main reasons for the 'increase in internal migration.'