ANKARA
The third month of 2020 saw numerous environmental disasters that impaired climate change and vice versa, including a deadly tornado in the U.S., landslide in Brazil and heavy rains in Pakistan.
Here is a look at the global environmental disasters during the previous month.
March 3:
- At least 19 people die in the U.S. state of Tennessee as a result of a heavy tornado that also causes major damage to buildings, roads, bridges, utilities, and businesses.
- Some 900 people are displaced after flash flood destroys houses in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia.
March 4:
- Hundreds of people are either displaced or left isolated after floods in northern parts of Namibia, according to local media reports.
March 6:
- The death toll in Rwanda rises to 53 from floods caused by heavy rains over the past two months. The floods destroyed over 800 houses, damaged 23 roads and 17 bridges and nearly 500 acres of agricultural land.
March 8:
- Five people from the Czech Republic are killed in an avalanche that occurred at the altitude of 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) in western Austria.
March 9:
- At least 42 people die in floods and landslides caused by heavy rains in the southeast of Brazil.
- 28 people are killed and 65 more injured due to the heavy rains in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, northwest Pakistan, according to the country’s disaster agency.
March 10:
- At least four people are killed and 29 others injured after an avalanche struck a village in Kundla village in Nathia Gali, northwest Pakistan.
March 12:
- FAO says new locust swarms, which “representing an unprecedented threat to food security,” begin to form in the Horn of Africa -- especially in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia -- and some other countries.
March 14:
- Three people die in a landslide caused by heavy rainfall in Darjeeling, India, according to the country’s met department.
March 16:
- Guatemala’s Santiaguito Volcano generates explosions and releases a column of ash rising 3,300 meters high above sea level as well as dispersing to the southwest, according to the country’s disaster center.
March 17:
- More than 3,000 houses, as well as 6,600 hectares of farms, are swept away by floods in Tanzania's Coast region.
March 19:
- A strong storm in southern Mersin province in Turkey destroys tens of thousands of almond trees, according to local agriculture and forestry officials.
- In the flood caused by heavy rains in Duhok province of Iraq, 400 houses and 200 vehicles are damaged.
March 22:
- Massive thunderstorm hits Dubai, the UAE, flooding roads, shopping malls, and residential buildings.
- At least 10 people are killed, hundreds of others displaced following floods and a landslide in Western Highlands, Papua New Guinea.
March 23:
- More than 700,000 people in different parts of Zambia are affected by floods that also leave many people in 28 districts in need of relief food, according to the country’s disaster unit.
- Estimated thousands of people in Australia die due to air pollution caused by recent bushfires in the country, according to a study by the Medical Journal of Australia.
March 25:
- At least 14 people die as a result of floods due to heavy rainfall — starts on March 22— in seven provinces of Iran, while 2,000 houses are damaged in Kerman province.
March 26:
- Hundreds of people are displaced and over 1,600 others are affected across four provinces in Burundi due to widespread floods, caused by 10-day long heavy rain.
- More than 70,000 people are affected by recent floods in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
March 27:
- Mount Merapi, the most active volcano in Indonesia, erupts for the second time in a month spewing volcanic ashes as high as 5,000 meters into the air.
March 31:
- At least 19 people, 18 firefighters, and a local forest farmer die while battling a bushfire in Sichuan province, southwest China.
