With over 100 million citizens, Egypt is the 14th-largest nation in the world. It has always been one of the most important nations in the Middle East and North Africa, with a rich history going back thousands of years. The Sinai Peninsula, the easternmost part of Egypt, is around 23,000 square miles of desert located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The Sinai is now a focal point in the movement to reclaim desert lands and “regreen” them.
Returning the Sinai to Its Former Green Glory
Around 10,000 years ago, the Sinai was a sort of tropical paradise filled with various types of trees and plants. Scientists believe that it was human activity that turned the lush green land into its current desert state. Men cut down trees and their animals’ grazing habits destroyed the local soil and vegetation. Over time, the situation deteriorated to the point that the peninsula’s half million inhabitants are unable to use the land for agriculture, and fresh water is a scarce commodity.
Now, a Dutch firm called Weather Makers has set its sights on regreening the Sinai and reclaiming the desert. Key to its approach is a repurposing of dredging, a process that is used to extract material from bodies of water. Dredging can cause serious damage to the environment by releasing toxic chemicals into the water and greatly disturbing the local ecosystems. Ties van der Hoeven, an engineer with Weather Makers, has devised a new dredging method that is not only more eco-friendly but more efficient and less expensive.
Weather Makers’ plan to regreen the Sinai begins with reinvigorating Lake Bardawil, a lagoon on the northern end of the peninsula. This body of water used to be at least 20 meters deep, but human activity has reduced its depth to only a few meters. Silt has gathered in the lagoon, raising its salinity to extremely high levels. To restore Lake Bardawil, Weather Makers plans to dredge it to clean out the excess silt and then dig channels to the nearby Mediterranean Sea to bring in a steady, fresh supply of water. The dredging process will collect material that can then be used as fertilizer and help build dams and strengthen the coastal area to prevent erosion.
Catching the Fog
A few miles south of Lake Bardawil is a hilly area that is ideal for the use of fog nets. These devices can capture fresh water directly from the air. Then, the water can be collected in dams and dikes to be used as needed. This method is self-sustainable and doesn’t do any damage to the local environment. The water can be used to build up the wetlands around Lake Bardawil, further reclaiming barren land.
Additional methods of capturing and reusing water are under consideration, including ways to use the dredging from Lake Bardawil to flow through mini ecosystems in a large greenhouse. Salt water used in this way creates condensation that filters out the saline, and when the water vapor cools, fresh water is created. Combined with the fog nets, this could create sufficient amounts of fresh water to support a more diverse ecosystem on the peninsula.
The idea of desert reclamation is not universally acknowledged as a major positive development, however. Critics point out that deserts are crucial to fighting global warming trends. Deserts reflect up to 30 percent of solar radiation back into space, cooling the planet. When deserts are changed to greener areas, much of their reflective nature is lost. This results in less cooling and more heat in the atmosphere.
Another criticism of the regreening process is that it does not directly take into account the role of wildlife in creating sustainable ecosystems. Regreening plans generally hope for a return of wildlife to the area, but they are not particularly specific in how and why this will occur, and what will happen if it does not. The role of local inhabitants has to be considered, too, in these newly created ecosystems. How locals use the newly created lands may well determine how effective the entire process will be.
The political situation in the Sinai Peninsula could be a serious barrier to regreening efforts. Egyptian security forces have battled against Islamist militants in the area, and the violence has been disruptive. The northern area of Sinai in particular has experienced acts of terrorism, and many of the residents there live below the poverty line. The difficulties in attempting a project on the scale of a regreening of the Sinai are multiplied by the local conditions. The Egyptian government will need to proceed carefully to ensure a safe and successful operation.