A new product is being touted by its developers as a step forward in
the fight against desertification and as a way for farmers and
residents to maintain moist soils and encourage plant growth in
unforgiving arid desert conditions. The product, DIME sand, is
waterproof or hydrophobic sand, developed by coating each grain of the
sand in a proprietary nanotechnology coating. The developers say that
by laying down a 10 centimeter layer of DIME sand beneath typical
desert topsoils, the hydrophobic sand stops water below the root level
of plants and maintains a water table, giving vegetation a constant
water supply. Traditional watering can be reduced from five to six
times a day to one watering. In addition, the sand allows aerobic
activity to move upward from the soil but prevents underground desert
salinity from passing into the plant roots. The Federal Environment
Agency in Germany declared the product ecologically-safe after six
months of testing. Additional trials have been ongoing at the United
Arab Emirates University since December of 2007. Professor Mohammed
Abdel Muhsen Salem said that date palms and foreign grasses have been
planted using the sand and "we can see a 25 per cent increase in the
roots with hydrophobic sand compared to when just the sweet soil is
used. I’m sure it will save up to 35 per cent more water. But we're
still testing it."
www.dimecreations.comSand design
