I grew up in this semi-magical house in Maryland. It was a Cape Cod style with dormers and a secret room above the porch that you got to by crawling though a little space between the eaves and the walls of the upper bedrooms. I had a quirky father who knew everything worth knowing and was happy to prove the point if you asked him a question in the appropriate tone of respect. One day he was talking and mentioned a “solar still“, a simple device to collect water used for survival in the desert. The idea is that you scoop out some sand, lay some plastic across the resultant hole (one always should carry plastic when crossing the desert), set it up correctly with some rocks so that the condensed water drops will roll conveniently down into your starbucks cup.

Since I was all of eight years old and my world was full of building castles, adventures and magical devices that could transport one anywhere at the speed of thought I hatched what I still consider the most brilliant idea ever conceived. Now why is this idea brilliant, which I won’t reveal now in order to keep your interest perked? A fair question. It is brilliant in it’s simplicity, being based on the solar still and brilliant in the benefit to mankind, although unrealized so far. For what if there were abundant water available in the Sahara? I will not mention some of mankind’s so called social problems concerning food production, overpopulation and land use. The solution is obvious! At least to an eight year old boy crawling towards the secret room above the porch.

On the west coast of Africa is a fascinating country called Mauritania. It is cool because it has an awesome flag, has some very odd landforms and is sparsely populated. Now there are many similar places in the world but here by the ocean is a funny spot not far from the capital called “Sebkha de Ndrhamcha”, a salt pan roughly 500 square miles in size that is the perfect starting point to irrigate the Sahara.

Next: Part 2 – The Desert Still