Desertification in Iraq: Multiplying sandstorms threaten local population Water is running out in Iraq, a country where nearly more than half of the territory is considered at risk of desertification. Year after year, the situation is becoming worse and worse. Meanwhile the vast desertified areas create an environment prone to sandstorms – a destructive and dangerous phenomenon for the people living there. Lina Malers and Marie-Charlotte Roupie report.