• The amount of dust in the air eased slightly in 2023, the United Nations said, warning that poor environmental management was fuelling sand and dust storms.

• Every year, around 2,000 million tonnes of dust enters the atmosphere, darkening skies and harming air quality in regions that can be thousands of kilometers away, and affecting economies, ecosystems, weather and climate. 

• Much of this is a natural process, but a large part of it is the result of poor water and land management.

• Higher temperatures, drought and higher evaporation levels which lead to lower soil moisture — exacerbated if combined with poor land management.

• The most severe storm of the year swept across Mongolia in March 2023, affecting more than 4 million square kilometres, including 20 provinces in China, according to the Airborne Dust Bulletin. 

• The UN’s weather and climate agency called for greater vigilance in the face of climate change, as drier surface soil leads to more dust being carried in the wind.

• Monitoring and forecasting accuracy has improved in recent years due to the progress of numerical models and observation systems. The WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning Advisory and Assessment System (SDS-WAS), set up in 2007, strives to improve warnings through dedicated regional centres and combines research and operational work.

• The global average of annual mean surface dust concentrations in 2023 (12.7 µg m–3) was slightly lower than that in 2022 (13.8 µg m–3) mainly due to reduced dust emissions from several dust-active regions around the world, such as North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Iranian Plateau, northern India, central Australia and north-western China. 

• But annual mean surface dust concentrations over western Central Asia, north-central China and southern Mongolia in 2023 were higher than those in 2022, according to the Bulletin.

• While dust storms are a problem on land, their long-range transport across the oceans is a bonus.

• The WMO report shows that Saharan dust in the Atlantic Ocean has provided essential nutrients like iron and phosphorus. These nutrients trigger the growth of phytoplankton, the base of the marine food chain and the whole ecosystem, including economically important species like skipjack tuna.

International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms

• Sand and dust storms present a formidable and wide-spread challenge to achieving sustainable development in its economic, social and environmental dimensions. 

• They have become a serious global concern in recent decades due to their significant impacts on the environment, health, agriculture, livelihoods, and socio-economic well-being. 

• Sand and dust storms are an essential element of the Earth’s natural bio-chemical cycles, but are also caused in part by human-induced drivers, including climate change, and unsustainable land management and water use. 

• Sand and dust storms’ impacts are felt in all regions of the world, both in developed and developing countries, and pose severe challenges to achieving Sustainable Development Goals.

• At least 25 per cent of global dust emissions originate from human activities, and in some areas, desert dust has doubled in the 20th century. 

• The impact of this phenomena is difficult to control, as human activity in one part of the world can cause sand and dust storms in another region.

• Recognising that sand and dust storms and their negative impacts at different scales are issues of international concern, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed July 12 as the International Day of Combating Sand and Dust Storms.

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