 |
| To try
and hold back the sand, people in Timbuktu are building a green belt around their city,
with grass planted in grids and trees |
Sometimes it seems as if
the weather and land are trying to bury Mali under sand. In the recent past, there has
been terrible drought and famine, and now the desert is
spreading. Lack of rain and over-grazing by cattle leaves the soil dry and damaged and
harsh desert winds blow it away. The loss of trees, as people hunt for firewood, is also a
terrible problem. Without trees – particularly their roots – soil easily turns
to dust. The expanding desert is a great worry to people in Mali, as is the rising sand.
"The level of the sand is rising so dramatically that what
was once the ground floor of the mosque is now like a basement, with only the tops of the
doors visible at street level. Since the first great drought of 1973 the sand has been
rising in Timbuktu as the rate of five centimetres a year." Ali Ould Sidi: Chief
of Timbuktu Cultural Mission |
