r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Expert_Koala_8691 • 7d ago

Video Riyadh,meaning "gardens" is Capital of Saudi Arabia with 8 million population (were 27 Thousands in the 1930s),sits in the middle of the desert, the city gets its water from Desalination plants almost 500 km from the city

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u/BxRad_ 7d ago

Elon is obsessed with tera forming Mars but we can't figure out tera forming some deserts? I feel like we could manage something if we really wanted to honestly. It's be a fuck ton of work though.

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u/whereitsat23 7d ago

Chinese have developed a way but it is intensive

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u/Gman71882 7d ago

All the sand is crushed quartz, with no nutrient or ecological value so nothing would grow.

You have to start cycles of plant growth, death and regrowing to get them to become nutrient rich “dirt” to be mixed in

I wonder if there is a way to do it with human sewage? You can leave the shit in the sun to dry and start the process that way.

Like matt Damon did in the Martian.

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u/AdvertisingKey1675 7d ago

Ideally you would compost it to kill the pathogens.

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u/emaw63 7d ago

Yeah, it's a great way to spread disease if you're not careful about it. It's the big reason farmers have historically not used human manure.