“I am always afraid as our house can fall on our heads. The sand comes in from all sides and the windows.”

 

To reach her front door, she must climb over the sand dune at the side of her house. She lives in a Mauritanian village of Erebine. And the Sahara Desert sand is taking over the village. Desertification has increased dramatically over the last 40 years. Today, sand covers about forty percent of the country, which is twice the size of France.

 

Government data for 2007 showed that dunes are shifting at an estimated 4 to 6 miles per year. Tops of houses are submerged by dunes and many people have moved to the cities. Some scientists blame global climate change for increased desertification, while others point fingers at poor agricultural practices and uprooting trees for firewood and insulation, leaving nothing to bind the sand.

 

The Mauritanian government in 2004 proposed a series of measures from the creation of a greenbelt around threatened cities to planting sticks and formations that halt the flow of sand.

 

A representative from the government’s department for the protection of nature shows vegetation they hope to plant to help combat the advancing sand.

 

“Every year, we bring up approximately a hundred or so thousand plants...of different species, local and indigenous and introduced species... (amazing!!!)”

 

The United Nation's program for development in Mauritania works to help the people adapt economically.

 

“We have the loss of livestock, because we have lots of Mauritanians who are depending on animal husbandry. We had the decrease of agricultural production, and this led to...(a) rural exodus from the people living in rural areas to bigger cities.”

 

And as the people abandon the villages in the countryside, it leaves them even more vulnerable to shifting sands.