Boxing the Desert

With his Waterboxx, Pieter Hoff (The Netherlands) won the Bèta Dragons Award 2008. It is an instrument that supports plants and trees in order to survive in difficult circumstances without using any groundwater or electricity. The box collects water by catching rainwater and producing and catching water from condensation. It subsequently distributes over a long(er) period the collected water to the tree placed in the centre.

In October Pieter Hoff returned from a succesful journey to the Moroccan Sahara. 90% of the planted trees were alive after having endured months of extreme heat in rocky soil.
“If we (re)forest 2 billion acres of desert, these trees will absorb more CO2 than we can produce so that problem would be solved”.

via eburon.nl (Dutch)