How to save a desert oasis—before it vanishes completely

“When there is no water, nothing green, the sand becomes very strong, a very fast enemy,” says Sbai. “It takes a lot of land.” The desert is pressing in from every direction. According to Sbai, the outer edge of the oasis moves inward by more than 300 feet each year. Sometimes Sbai worries that he might be witnessing the end of the oasis altogether and, with it, an ancient ecosystem—and the nomadic culture and traditions it enables—that he holds dear.

For thousands of years people have lived and thrived in oases, developing a complex agricultural system finely calibrated to the harsh desert environment, with its water scarcity and ecological fragility. By some measurements, oases occupy 740,000 square miles worldwide—roughly three times the area of Texas—and in North Africa and Asia sustain an estimated 150 million people. In Morocco, oases are home to one million people. The stresses of contemporary climate change are accelerating with increasing aridity, temperatures, and desertification, as well as destructive floods and wildfires, yet Sbai is an optimist steeped in nomadic culture, and he believes that oases contain the seeds of their own salvation.

What is an oasis? An imagined place? A mythical one? An isolated, palm-fringed pool in the desert? A place of safety? Somewhere desperate travelers might find relief, or dismay if the oasis turns out to be a mirage? Ecologically, it is simply an area made fertile by a water source in an otherwise harsh and arid environment. But human ingenuity has transformed oases into complex civilizations.

Ten thousand years ago, northern Africa was hammered by strong monsoon rains and the Sahara was verdant. But the climate gradually shifted, and the grasslands and rivers dried up. In the newly unforgiving desert landscape, water was scarce. Where people found it, they exploited it and created pockets of habitable land that made life not just possible but prosperous, providing homes and livelihoods to many thousands. Radiocarbon-dated barley and wheat grains, as well as millstones used to grind flour, show that oases were already developing in the Drâa Valley during the fifth century.

As oases grew, so too did Saharan trade. Date palms, the hallmark species of the oasis, are drought and heat resistant, and grow readily in the desert wherever there’s water close to the surface. But it takes huge amounts of labor and engineering to successfully cultivate them. These costs were in part met by the salt, gold, and textile traders who plied the caravan routes between Marrakech and Timbuktu. Oases were a place for them to rest and restock before their next expedition. As Sbai puts it, “You can’t be a nomad all the time, just moving everywhere. You need to stop, relax.”