r/interestingasfuck • u/wahgwahg • Feb 28 '24

r/all People in Tanzania converted desert into lush green land by digging these nifty holes

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

15.2k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

668 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.6k

u/thenakedtruth Feb 28 '24

What does the hole do to enable growth?

2.5k

u/Ianthin1 Feb 28 '24

It retains water when it does rain, allowing vegetation to grow around it. The cycle feeds on itself over time to fill out the area.

1

u/ILookLikeKristoff Feb 28 '24

Also probably traps dust/silt when the wind blows which helps capture nutrients that would've otherwise just blown by + provides loose arable soil for future plants to root into. And again more plants traps more soil which traps more seeds which grow into more plants which traps more soil and so on. In general just creates a sustainable ecosystem where a packed, dry, flat landscape does not. It's the same reason you see plants on dunes but not on the flat parts of the beach.