Socio-political and Economic Risks Caused by the Phenomenon of Particulate Matter as an Obstacle to Sustainable Development (The province of Kermanshah)

For more than a decade, the southwestern provinces of Iran have encountered with the phenomenon of sand and dust storms. This phenomenon has become the most common cause of air and environmental pollution in those areas. The present research aims to examine the challenges and risks posed by this phenomenon against sustainable development.

This research has investigated the social, political and economic dimensions of the dust problem using a qualitative method (thematic analysis). The techniques used were semi-structured interviews and observations. In this study, 60 local people were interviewed.

The findings show that dust particles not only have caused the loss of biological balance of plant species in the environment, but also they have had devastating effects on the local businesses and have caused socio-psychological and health problems and increased the cost of life for the people and the government. The phenomenon of dust can be considered as the most important factor that has reduced the objective and subjective quality of life of locals.

This research shows that this phenomenon has created an undesirable collection of issues in the economic, social and health fields that reproduces a polysemantic structure of poverty. In such undesirable environment, dissatisfaction with the current situation has paved the way for the collapse of the balance of the social system of the society. This kind of climate change has had a great impact on the quality of life of the people, which, on the one hand, provides a platform for distrust to the involved institutions and, on the other hand, threatens the sustainability of development in the social, economic and political dimensions.