Technology from Saudi Arabia is transforming deserts into true oases and can help Brazil

Saudi Arabia develops technology capable of transforming deserts into regions with vegetation using rainwater. Understand how this can help Brazil.

Brazil broke the record for the increase in average temperature in recent years and this is something that Brazilians felt on their skin, but more than just the heat, There is a silent catastrophe spreading across the northeast of the country that could affect everyone faster than expected. In this way, scientists from Saudi Arabia sought to develop new technology to reverse the situation.

Remembering geography classes, It is very likely that you have already heard at school that there are no deserts in Brazil, only semi-arid areas in the Northeast. However, now things have changed as our climate is changing. It is in the vast immensity of the northeastern Sertão, amidst the beautiful scenery of the Caatinga that something unusual has been happening.

Desert in Brazil becomes reality

The region, known for being challenged by the sun to overcome heat and drought year after year, recently discovered that there is a new threat in that region. O Brazilian Northeast The first desert has just opened in the country and researchers are very concerned about this new discovery.

In 2022, researchers from the Ministry of the Environment reported the first arid place in Brazil, located in the north of Bahia, that is, the first Brazilian desert, which would be approximately the size of the Federal District. 

Despite being adapted to drought, the Caatinga region is not prepared for a completely arid climate. In the 20 years of monitoring, a gigantic area of ​​desert has been seen to emerge. Furthermore, it also grows at an accelerated rate, which puts not only wildlife at risk, but everyone who makes this place their home and this may be explaining why in recent years we are seeing extinction and death in various forms. of life in the Northeast region.

New technology from Saudi Arabia that could change the course of the desert in Brazil

Despite the risks of this new problem in Brazil, the situation is not doomed to disaster. There are still several ways that can be explored so that deserts are controlled and remain the size they are. The Inpe specialist, Javier Tomasella, has a still concerned, but more hopeful, view of this problem.

He recommends the participation of both the government and the private sector to solve this climate crisis with more efficient use of irrigation and combating the misuse of river basins. Another important part of the desert solution is the fight against fires. Forest shade that helps with heat and water retention that helps with drought should be the main weapons to deal with this global warming in these specific areas. 

The solution may not be simple or immediate, but there are ways to adapt to these changes. There are concrete examples of initiatives that worked around the world. For example, we have some desert reversion projects, that is, the transformation of deserts into vegetation areas.

Saudi Arabia is a leader in new technology to reverse deserts

It is with a lot of effort and a gigantic amount of resources and research into technologies that Saudi Arabia has been combating and overcoming desertification in its few forests and has been expanding vegetation into the desert. Over the decades, the Saudi Arabia has been making circular plantations and agricultural products while extracting water from 1000 m deep in the desert soils to irrigate its crops.

Although incredible, it is not a permanent solution, as the aquifers may eventually dry out too, but on the other hand, there is another investment in a new technology, known as the Al Baydha project. It consists of regenerating the land using a system of flash floods, that is, floods in the desert.

To explain it in a very simplified way, through the construction of dams and ditches, it is possible to keep scarce rainwater trapped in the soil, gradually reversing desertification. The small fauna and flora of Saudi Arabia's rare forests are expanding and being saved from complete extinction.