Cairo: Sandstorms dropped to their lowest levels last month in Saudi Arabia for the first time in two decades, according to meteorologists.
The Sand and Sandstorm Warning Regional Centre, an affiliate of the Saudi National Centre for Meteorology, reported that sand and dust storms in the kingdom dropped by 80 per cent on average last month, marking their lowest in May in 20 years.
The kingdom’s Central and Eastern provinces showed an 80 per cent drop against 100 per cent in Al Qasim and the Northern Borders, 95 per cent in Riyadh, and 86 per cent in Al Ihsa in eastern Saudi Arabia, said Jaman Al Qahtani, the CEO of the Sand and Sandstorm Warning Regional Centre.
He attributed the record drop to environment protection efforts in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia plans to grow 10 billion trees and rehabilitate more than 40 million hectares of degraded land in the next decades as part of a pro-environment initiative that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled some three years ago.
In March, Saudi Arabia hosted in Riyadh an international conference on dust and sandstorms to discuss advanced technologies and research in the field and mitigation approaches.
Organised by the Sand and Sandstorm Warning Regional Centre, the conference drew the participation of top-level experts and international bodies including the World Meteorology Organisation.
The event sought to chart chances for international scientific cooperation in research linked to monitoring and impacts as well as expertise exchange in addressing sandstorms and mitigating their effects.
The centre is an outcome of the Green Middle East Initiative that was launched by Prince Mohammed in 2021 to support environment-friendly sustainability in the region.
He also launched the Saudi Green Initiative, a plan aimed, among other things, at increasing the protected zones to 30 per cent of the country’s overall area and reducing carbon emissions by 278 million tonnes annually by the year 2030.
