Amazing... The Green Belt of Bushes around the Worlds Longest Desert Highway: The Tarim Desert Highway, China One of the most curious highways in the world is the Tarim Desert Highway. Completed in 1995 across the heart of Xinjiang, China’s Taklamakan, the desert region that occupies the bulk of the Tarim Basin, the 552 km (343 mi) road is the longest road in the world built across a shifting-sand desert, with four-fifths of the road encountering the hazardous sands that frequently buried the highway. Add to this the fact that absolutely no settlements exist along the length of the highway, and the road’s existence would seem to be rather curious. The purpose of the highway actually sits underneath the sands in the form of the huge oil-and-gas field that underlies the Tarim Basin. The highway not only allows direct access to whatever resources lie underneath the Taklamakan, but also allows transport of goods and resources from the northern portion of the basin (specifically, the Lunnan Oilfield) to directly transported to the southern portions of the country rather than take a detour around the desert that would encompass hundreds of kilometres. Because of the lack of settlement along the highway, a PetroChina gas station and roadhouse was constructed by the government near the halfway point of the road to service travellers, for without the station drivers would surely run out of fuel in the middle of the desert. This, however, did not eliminate the other great problem of the Tarim Desert Highway, the roving sands that would swallow the road, moving at a rate of 5 m (16 ft) per year. After five years experimenting with various plants that could survive desert conditions, a pilot project was inaugurated by China in 1999 to ward off the shifting sand by planting rose willows, saxaul and buckthorn along a 6.3 km (3.9 mi) section of roadside using an underground irrigation systems that tapped into a subsurface aquifer. This was gradually expanded until in 2003 a 220 million yuan (US$26.8 million) plan to create a belt of bushes 75 m (246 ft) wide along both sides of the road for its entire length was implemented, given the name of the ‘Tarim Desert Highway Ecological Shelterbelt Project’. The plan has largely been a success as most of the highway’s course is now vegetated, although some do wonder about the ecological ethics of such a scheme. Every 5 km (3 mi) along the highway, little pumphouses pump water from wells dug 100 m (330 ft) into the aquifer. From there, networks of water drip lines are strung along the roadside, feeding the planted bushes and grasses. Each pumphouse houses two workers in one room, generally a married couple, who maintain a small portion of the system (in short, they turn the pumps on during the day and then shut them off at night; a rather minimal duty, indeed). Despite the pumphouses also serving as home for the workers, there are no kitchen or bathroom facilities within them; food and water are delivered once per month and the desert gas station serves as a convenience store. With this level of isolation, it is no wonder that couples are preferred as workers.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 02:42:57 +0000
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