Sand and Dust Storms Risk Assessment in Asia and the Pacific

🎯 Sand and Dust Storms Risk Assessment in Asia and the Pacific 🎯

👉 “Sand and Dust Storms Risk Assessment in Asia and the Pacific” report is published by the Asian and Pacific Centre for the Development of Disaster Information Management (APDIM) with support of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

👉 This report is the first attempt to assess and analyse the risks posed to society and the environment by sand and dust storms in such a large-scale geographical area.

🎯 Key findings:

👉 More than 500 million people are exposed to medium and high levels of poor air quality due to sand and dust storms in India.

👉 The Asia-Pacific region is the world’s second-largest in terms of mineral dust emissions, with four main sand and dust storm corridors:

1.East and North-East Asia

2.South and South-West Asia

3.Central Asia

4.the Pacific subregions.

👉 Sand and Dust Storms directly threatening the achievement of 11 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals

👉 More than 80 per cent of the populations of Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Iran are exposed to medium and high levels of poor air quality due to sand and dust storms.

🎯  Impact on the energy sector:

👉 Sand and dust storms impact the generation of electricity by solar power plants.

👉 Accordion to an estimate, measured in economic terms, the impact is greater than USD107m a year in India and exceeds USD46m and USD37m a year in China and Pakistan.

Impact on the aviation sector:

👉 The exposure of aircraft engines to dust particles is a considerable risk on flight paths traversing southwestern and central parts of Asia.

👉 The most affected regions are the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India, and China.

🎯 On farmlands:

👉 Large areas of farmland are affected by dust deposition in Turkmenistan (71% of the cropland area), Pakistan (49%) and Uzbekistan (44%).

👉 The sand and dust have high salt content which reduces yields, representing a significant threat to the production of irrigated cotton and other crops.

🎯 On mountains:

👉 Very high dust deposition occurs in the Himalaya-Hindu Kush Mountain range and the Tibetan Plateau which provides fresh water to more than 1.3 billion people in Asia.

👉 The deposition of dust on glaciers induces a warming effect, increasing the melting of ice, with direct and indirect impacts on society through numerous issues, including food security, energy production, agriculture, water stress and flood regimes.

🎯 On cities:

👉 The most impacted cities are located in southwestern parts of Asia.

👉 Dust makes a significant contribution to poor air quality in Karachi, Lahore, and Delhi, where nearly 60 million people experienced more than 170 dusty days a year in 2019.

🎯 Risk of impacts from sand and dust storms:

👉 It is projected to increase in the 2030s due to more extreme drought conditions in parts of Western Australia, south-eastern Turkey, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Afghanistan.

👉 The sources in Kazakhstan, northern China, Mongolia and the Ganges basin in India face a lower risk of drought and hence probably less risk from sand and dust storms.

👉 The impacts of dust storms are not always negative. Dust particles can carry iron which can enrich parts of oceans, improving the phytoplankton balance and impacting marine food webs.

🎯 Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP):

👉 It is the most inclusive intergovernmental platform in the Asia-Pacific region.

👉 The Commission promotes cooperation among its 53 member States and 9 associate members in pursuit of solutions to sustainable development challenges.

👉 ESCAP is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations.

👉 The objective of ESCAP is to promote inclusive and sustainable economic and social development in the Asia-Pacific region, with priority accorded to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.