The United Nations had in fact launched in 2013 a project to establish a green belt along the land border between Iraq and Kuwait to reduce dust storms, provided that the project was funded through Kuwaiti compensations. The Ministry of Environment announced in 2015 its intention to set up green belts on the Iranian, Kuwaiti and Syrian borders.
Over the years, there have been many statements and proposals for projects to reduce dust storms. In 2012, Hassan al-Janabi, an expert on irrigation and the current minister of irrigation, proposed a project to establish a body or ministry for the National Green Belt along with a suitable route from northern to southern Iraq.
Modern technology has introduced new treatments for desertification, which the Ministry of Agriculture intends to follow, according to Hamid Nayef, the official spokesman of the Ministry of Agriculture.
Nayef told Al-Monitor, "The ministry is cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as other countries. This was strengthened at the conference on combating desertification held in the Chinese capital Beijing on Sept. 12. All those who were interviewed by the ministry believe that the security situation will be an impediment to investment and funding in projects aimed to combat desertification.”
Nayef said, "The new modern project is not only combating desertification through planting trees, but also by digging wells with modern technologies.”
The creation of green belts throughout the country will not only reduce the quantity and degree of dust storms, but will also alter Iraq's extreme temperature, improve the environmental balance, provide wildlife with new opportunities for living and create thousands of job opportunities for unemployed youth.
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