SINGAPORE: Mongolia was the main source of northern China’s worst sandstorms in five years from January to April, and may have contributed as much as 70 per cent of the dust floating over capital Beijing, China’s environment ministry said on Monday (May 29).
Northern China is routinely hit by heavy sandstorms in the spring, with conditions worsened by deforestation and higher regional temperatures. It has tried to shield its major cities by planting extensive new forests known as “shelterbelts”.
But with the number of sandstorms rising again since 2017, the focus has gradually shifted to China’s northern neighbour, Mongolia, where a changing climate together with overgrazing and overmining have caused conditions to deteriorate.
China experienced as many as 12 large-scale sand and dust storms in the first four months of 2023, said Jiang Huohua, vice-head of the monitoring office at China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
Over that period, 267 Chinese cities in 27 provinces and regions suffered more than 4,800 days of sandstorms, the highest in five years, he said.