Climate change threatens age-old Mauritania date harvest
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00It's with sadness that Elien watches the disappearance of the Azougie oasis, a haven
00:06where he grew up.
00:08Masses of sand engulf the trees, threatening the crops and jeopardising his way of life
00:12and the livelihoods of other residents.
00:17Here, we live mainly off palm trees.
00:21When they're threatened, we're all threatened.
00:28I'm sorry to see this landscape.
00:33Nearly 20,000 palm trees have died since the 80s and his village is becoming emptier by the year.
00:38Another consequence of the climate crisis in Mauritania is that water can no longer
00:42be absorbed by the soil, causing catastrophic damage.
00:46That is the case of the Emhieret oasis, which is struggling to recover from a flood which
00:50occurred two years ago.
00:54The oasis has lost 6,000 palm trees.
00:57Today, we need a dam to hold back the water so we can plant more trees and make a living.
01:06To preserve the oases, locals are talking about building dams to help with irrigation
01:10and protect residents from flooding.
01:14Water will be one of the problems over the next 50 years.
01:18We don't know how to conserve it.
01:20We can make sunken speed bumps at the bottom.
01:23We can build small dikes and let nature do what it wants.
01:29The climate emergency is expected to increase the risk and severity of natural disasters
01:33in Mauritania due to more intense temperatures,
01:36prolonged heat waves and greater variability in rainfall.