Desertification, a silent threat to Kuwait’s land
The Times Kuwait Report
Total land area in Kuwait is 17,818 sq km, which places it in the bottom quartile of world’s countries based on size. Considering this relatively small area, it is vital that authorities pay particular attention to ensuring available land is utilized most efficiently, and also to implementing measures that prevent land loss to pollution, degradation, and natural encroachment by the sea or through desertification.
In particular, desertification is a significant challenge that has largely remained unaddressed over the years. Though the word connotes desert, in scientific terms desertification refers to the degradation of land in arid areas such as Kuwait, as well as in semi-arid and sub-humid areas that often create desert-like conditions. Desertification in Kuwait is caused by various factors, including climatic variations, soil degradation, wind erosion, and human activities, and is characterized by the loss of fertile land and vegetated areas.
There is no specific agency in Kuwait dedicated to working proactively to prevent degradation and mitigate desertification of land. The Municipality is responsible for allocating land, preventing its usurp, and monitoring that land distributed is used as intended. Meanwhile, the Environmental Public Authority (EPA) is tasked with protecting and preserving the natural environment and preventing pollution. The Coastal and Desertification Monitoring Department at EPA passively monitors and reports on natural land and sea encroachments.
Lack of a dedicated entity has over the decades led to unbridled human activities polluting and degrading Kuwait’s waters, coastline and land area. Additionally, natural processes such as sea encroachments into land, and soil erosion through sand and dust storms, have taken a steady toll on available land in the country. Absence of effective mitigatory measures has led to large swathes of fertile land being transformed by sand and dust storms into barren deserts.
Desertification damages the natural vegetation, spurs biodiversity loss, and disrupts ecological processes. In addition, desertification leads to economic and social impacts, as it can negatively affect agricultural productivity, livestock, and livelihoods, as well as human health by increasing the risks of respiratory diseases, heart disorders, eye and skin irritation, and other ailments.
While there is no straight-forward ‘cause-effect’ process that leads to desertification, the drivers of this process and their complex interactions are known. The direct drivers include climatic variations, especially low soil moisture, rainfall patterns, evaporation, and erosion of top soil by sand and dust storms. Indirect drivers are mostly human derived, such as overgrazing of sheep and camels, off-road vehicle traffic, sand and gravel quarrying, and unsustainable land management practices.
Addressing the direct causes of desertification such as climatic changes or wind erosion are complex, long-term strategies that require concerted local efforts. Moreover, the origin of dust storms in one country can have consequences in neighboring nations, or in areas far away, thus tackling these transnational issues often necessitates cooperation and coordination on a regional and global level.
However, indirect desertification that results from human activities, such as social activities, market demands, or political dynamics can be prevented or mitigated more readily. For instance, legal enforcement can prevent overgrazing and discourage off-road vehicle use, while implementation of proactive and sustainable land management policies can reduce harmful quarrying and mining practices.
Wind erosion through sand and dust storms are a major driver of desertification. Sometimes referred to as a ‘desert tsunami’, sand and dust storms drive nearly two billion tonnes of dust annually into the atmosphere, affecting the lives and livelihood of more than 330 million people in over 150 countries around the world.. Rising mainly from dry and desert environments, dust particles are swept by strong winds to areas thousands of kilometers away from where they originate.
A study conducted by the Environmental and Earth Sciences Division at Kuwait Institute of Scientific Research (KISR) and published in 2018 notes that the Kuwait–Basra area along the southern Mesopotamian plain has the highest frequency of dust storms in the Middle East, and is considered to be one of the major sources of dust in the world. This area is susceptible to dust-storms because of its low topographic relief, scanty vegetative cover, light-texture of its top soils and recurring strong and turbulent winds.
The study showed that wind blows from two main directions over Kuwait, the north-west (Shamal) and, to a lesser extent, the south-east. In the summer (June–September), the monsoon depression affects the north-westerly winds causing them to be very active. These high-speed winds can occur over 40 days in summer, raising dust and often reducing visibility to a few metres, while also forming the characteristic sand dunes found in Kuwait and elsewhere in the region.
The strong north-westerly Shamal wind in summer, exerts enough traction on the bare, dry soil surface to lift thousands of tonnes of fine sediment particles into the air, reducing fertile top soil and organic matter from the area. Dust plumes generated in the southern Mesopotamian plain in summer and driven by the strong Shamal winds sweep over Kuwait and down the Arabian Gulf covering the region in thick dust clouds.
The KISR study calculated that the average rate of sand encroachment in Kuwait at 14 m3/m/year, which is the total sand in cubic meters transported by wind per meter of wind width annually. The study attributed overgrazing, sand and gravel quarrying, off-road traffic, and application of irrational measures to control mobile sand, as the main human-induced causes of desertification in Kuwait. The report urged authorities to urgently control human activities in the desert area, conserve areas vulnerable to desertification, and rehabilitate damaged ecosystems.
On the global level, a new report on sand and dust storms (SDS) by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) notes that SDS pose formidable challenges due to the significant impact they have on the economy, environment, health, agriculture, and social development of people in affected countries. While SDS are a natural element in Earth’s biogeochemical cycles, in recent decades they have been exacerbated by human activities. At least 25 percent of global dust emissions are estimated to originate from human activities.
Across the Middle East and North Africa repercussions of SDS impact lives, livelihoods, opportunities and productivity, with the economic aspect of dust storms alone estimated at cost US$13 billion annually. Increasingly, SDS have become an issue of global concern as they aggravate climate change, increase biodiversity loss, and raise air pollution levels in places far from where they originate.
According to the UN agencies, the application of sustainable land management can significantly reduce land degradation from SDS. It can potentially increase farming yields by between 30–170 percent, reduce income loss globally of over US$42 billion annually, and by just restoring land lost each year to SDS could produce an additional 20 million tonnes of grain.
Under the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), 131 states, including Kuwait, have pledged to achieve land degradation neutrality (LDN) by 2030, which would ensure that human activity has a neutral, or even positive impact on the land. Yet, on the Convention’s 20th anniversary in 2024, a report by the UNCCD showed that the world is losing the equivalent of four football fields of land every minute.
In its report submitted to UNCCD in 2019, Kuwait noted that 52,500 hectares, representing over 3 percent of its total land area, an area equivalent to 73,500 football fields, had become degraded. It is laudatory that Kuwait is now taking measures to combat desertification through various initiatives, including research, land management strategies, and public awareness campaigns. But more needs to be done, and they need to be done now.
