On the outskirts of Nouakchott, Mauritania, monsters lie in wait: hordes of sand dunes are poised to overwhelm this desert capital. They stand tens of metres high and are advancing towards the city like predatory snakes. While dunes move in slow motion compared to other natural disasters like earthquakes or tidal waves, they are every bit as damaging and just as impossible to stop. But one man claims to have a solution to tame the dunes. His name is Jean Meunier, a Frenchman who spent his life teaching agriculture in more than 30 countries. After his retirement in 1993, he formulated a simple and elegant method to control dunes wherever they encroach on human habitation. Instead of futilely trying to stop the movement of sand, he harnesses the dunes' very creator - the wind itself-to destroy them.
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