Wild plants play vital role in stabilizing sand dunes

A number of wild plants act as perfect wind-blown sand-breakers, playing a vital role in stabilizing sand dunes, said Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research here Wednesday. KISR Researcher Dr. Ali Al-Dousiri told KUNA that Kuwait lies on the natural path of sand dunes situated in the north and northwestern parts of the country and as a result, sandstorms become more prevalent during certain seasons. Dr. Al-Dousiri said that the KISR had looked into measures to find natural sand-breakers to prevent sand dunes from moving and the cheapest method would be through growing certain types of wild plants and trees from desert and sea habitats. The KISR gathered 800 samples from sand dunes and tried to grow several types of wild plants, said Dr. Al-Dousiri, adding that the KISR research revealed that 11 kinds of plants, like Tamarix trees (Athel) and Rhanterium epapposum plant (Arfaj), proved to be excellent sand dune stabilizers. Dr. Al-Dousiri said that it was necessary for all sectors of the state to cooperate in order to prevent sand from crawling into populated areas and roads, noting that growing wild plants on both sides of roads and on the outskirts of cities and residential areas was the solution.