On nights when the wind hisses across the dunes, the old man sits on his
straw mat, draws a blanket around his shoulders and counts his money.
In the morning, Sidahmed Ould Magaya, 75, will be trapped inside his concrete
house, the wooden door sealed shut by a wall of sand accumulated overnight. In
exchange for 1,500 ougiya (about US$6; €4.50), workers will liberate him,
hauling the yellow sand away in burlap bags.
At that rate, he has to sell a goat a month to pay for the mounting cost of
keeping the desert at bay in a country where the dunes are said to be shifting
at an estimated rate of 3 to 4 kilometers (about 4 to 6 miles) per year,
according to government data.
Throughout Mauritania, a desolate, dune-enveloped country twice the size of
France, men and women wage a daily battle against the sand.
With less rain falling now than in years past, the dunes have become dry and
unstable. Global climate change ...