After a week of being shrouded under the thick blanket of our most recent dust storm, to the delight of Qatar's residents, the air has finally cleared. Leaving the cars of the country coated in the dusty remnants.
Thick plumes of dust blew down from Iraq across Kuwait, Bahrain and the Gulf in a south easterly direction, engulfing Qatar on the 30th of July. Iraq is no stranger to dust storms, but for numerous reasons the twenty-first century has seen an increase in dust activity . Some causes include regional drought, water diversion, desertification, and power shortages that interfere with irrigation systems. The combination of these factors has led to a buildup of dust in Iraq that can be lofted into the atmosphere by even slight winds.
This is bad news for Qatar's proud car owners. Car owners in this country are consistently trying to keep their cars clean and shiny. Quite a conundrum when it is literally raining dust. Now that the air has cleared car owners are queueing to have the sandy deposits washed off their cars.
This is good news for car washing facilities. The car washes have seen a real surge in business over the past few days, with queues in some cases exceeding 45 minutes. To compound the problem, earlier this year we saw the closure of the many car washing shops in the Al Markhiya area, which was known for it's abundance them. People are now looking around for new places to wash their cars.
The problem doesn't end there. The prices at the remaining car wash shops has skyrocketed. Before you could get your car jack-washed for around 25 riyals, whereas now some places are charging up to 50 riyals for an SUV.
The world may be suffering from mass desertification whilst at the same time drowning in the global recession, all the while Qatar's car washing shops are laughing all the way to the bank.
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