Sands of Despair: Ancient City on Brink of Vanishing Due to Desertification
For hundreds of years, poets, academics, and religious thinkers have been drawn to Chinguetti, an ancient Saharan trade hub that houses over a dozen libraries filled with countless manuscripts.
However, it now teeters on the verge of disappearance. The shifting sands have long buried the central area from the 8th century of this old city and continue to threaten the surrounding areas at its present perimeter.
Locals believe the desert shapes their fate.
As global temperatures rise and conditions become hotter and drier, sandstorms are increasingly burying Chinguetti's roads and houses under meters of sand dunes, completely engulfing some structures.
Efforts to plant trees aim to prevent the advancing sand dunes, yet these initiatives have not alleviated the profound concerns regarding what lies ahead.
Like a slowly unfolding calamity
Chinguetti is among the four UNESCO World Heritage sites located in Mauritania, an West African country where merely 0.5 percent of the terrain is deemed suitable for agriculture.
In Africa — the continent that contributes the least to fossil fuel emissions — only Somalia and Eswatini have seen greater increases. climate change impacts as per the information from the World Bank.
The people of Mauritania consider Chinguetti one of the most sacred cities in Islam. The city’s dwellings, made with dry stones and mud mortar, along with its mosques and libraries, house some of the earliest Islamic texts and manuscripts from West Africa, encompassing subjects such as jurisprudence and mathematics.
The community leader, Melainine Med El Wely, is deeply distressed about the implications for the inhabitants and the historical significance of Chinguetti. "It’s as though we're witnessing a natural disaster unfolding at an excruciatingly slow pace," he remarked.
"It's a city encircled by a sea of sand that keeps expanding with each passing moment," stated El Wely, who serves as the president of the local Association for Participatory Oasis Management.
There are spots where I stroll nowadays, and I recall those same areas as rooftops from my childhood.
Once, he recalls, when so much sand accumulated in his neighborhood that it buried the palm fronds used for roofing, an unsuspecting camel wandered into what had previously been someone's living room.
Deserts are growing at an alarming pace not seen before.
Studies indicate that sand movement significantly contributes to desertification. Currently, deserts such as the Sahara are expanding faster than ever before, and "sand seas" are becoming active again, leading to shifting dunes and altered terrains where plants previously thrived.
"What was previously considered the worst-case scenario five to ten years back is now appearing more probable than we initially anticipated," stated Andreas Baas, an earth scientist at King’s College London, whose work focuses on shifts in wind patterns and their impact on sand movement.
More than Three-fourths of the Earth's land surface has experienced increased dryness. In recent years, as highlighted in a 2024 United Nations report on desertification, increasing aridity has jeopardized the survival of plants, humans, and animals. This phenomenon strips land of essential moisture for sustaining life, destroys crops, and can lead to sandstorms and wildfires.
The UN report stated that human-induced climate change is responsible for warming the Earth and increasingly drying out vast areas of land. It noted that water scarcity due to aridity leads to illnesses, fatalities, and massive involuntary migrations across the globe.
Scientists and policymakers are primarily worried about soils deteriorating in previously fertile zones that are slowly turning into desolate lands, as opposed to areas far within the Sahara Desert.
Houses are now buried beneath the sand.
In Chinguetti, a shifting climate is bringing about numerous outcomes that authorities had cautioned against. Trees are drying up, wells are running dry and livelihoods are vanishing.
Farmers such as 50-year-old Salima Ould Salem are finding it progressively harder to provide enough nutrition for their palm trees. As a result, they must transport water via tanks and adopt thorough pruning techniques to ensure efficient use of this scarce resource.
The area around Salem’s neighborhood was previously teeming with families, but these residents have slowly relocated over time. The entrance to his house is now obstructed by sand. Additionally, this same sand has covered what were once homes for several neighbors. Furthermore, an adjacent guesthouse constructed by a Belgian investor many years back stands only partially above ground level, as it is largely enveloped by a shimmering reddish-golden dune.
Although numerous individuals have left, Salem persists, recognizing that every departure diminishes the protective barrier for those who remain. Consequently, the likelihood increases that the rest of the community might fall prey to external forces. desert .
“The 50-year-old date farmer stated, ‘We would rather remain here. Should I depart, my place will vanish.’”
The trees that used to protect the neighborhood are now gone.
In the past, acacia, gum, and palm trees protected the neighborhood from advancing sand dunes, but these have slowly vanished over time. The disappearance can be attributed to either drought-induced death or being chopped down by locals who required wood for fires or vegetation as fodder for their livestock.
Retired teacher Mohamed Lemine Bahane mentioned that sandstorms are nothing new but they have grown more disruptive over time, with each one depositing massive piles of sand in the outskirts of town. Due to the narrow alleys of the ancient part of the city, locals rely on mules and handcarts to clear away the accumulated sand since automobiles and heavy machinery cannot access these areas.
Once the sand accumulates sufficiently, some choose to construct additional barriers on top of the existing ones.
"When you eliminate the plants, it allows the dunes to become more dynamic since the vegetation is what essentially keeps the sand in place and prevents excessive movement," Bahane explained.
For many years, Bahane has been recording data on sand accumulation and precipitation, stating that Chinguetti has experienced an average yearly rainfall of 2.5 centimeters over the last ten years.
As rain decreases dramatically, trees perish, and an increasing amount of sand invades the settlement. With shorter acacia trees buried in sand, certain herders turn to chopping down date palms to nourish their livestock, thereby causing even greater disruption to the environment and the dates. farming economy .
The sand particles likewise raise public health concerns for the community due to inhalation of the dust, according to Bahane.
Can planting additional trees prevent sand from engulfing Chinguetti?
Bahane feels that the answer lies in increasing tree plantations within residential areas as well as around the outskirts of town.
These "green belts" have been suggested on a continental level As part of Africa's "Great Green Wall" initiative, along with local efforts in places such as Chinguetti.
The Ministries of Environment and Agriculture in Mauritania along with European-backed non-governmental organizations have proposed initiatives to plant trees aimed at protecting the city’s libraries and manuscripts from encroaching desertification.
Although many have been replanted, there’s minimal evidence suggesting this effort has effectively halted the advance of the desert. Deep taproots often require several years before they can penetrate far enough into the ground to reach underground water sources.
"We believe that desertification is inevitable for us. However, fortunately, there are individuals who remain steadfast in their belief that we can fight against it," stated El Wely, the community leader.
