Standing on arid Egyptian earth about twenty years ago, Farouk El-Baz drank from the faucet that would bring new life to a small village.
The first to drink from the new well – the villagers had insisted – El-Baz soaked up the feeling that came from offhandedly discovering water underneath the area near the dried-up Baris Oasis, saving a community that was on the verge of having to abandon its land.
“They put a faucet on the well, and they wouldn’t drink it until I had a drink from it,” he remembers. “So I put my head under it and pumped it. Water came pouring out and they clapped and yelled and drank – it was great. They were so excited.”
El-Baz, director of the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing, didn’t set out to save the village – a friend had contacted him, asking if there was any possibility of water in the area at all. From satellite images, he found a fault line where he suspected water might accumulate.
“I circled [the fault line] and sent it to him by fax and told him to try [drilling a well] himself in this one place, just to see if there was water,” El-Baz said last week. “Lo and behold, water came through.”
The discovery came as a surprise to the Egyptians and to El-Baz himself, and he says it was the “nicest feeling” he has ever had. Now, he is hoping to bring the same sort of fountain of life to a region whose rivers run red with blood more often than they flow fresh with water — in Darfur, Sudan, a huge underground lake may be the answer to at least some of the struggling region’s problems.
DARFUR: LEFT HIGH AND DRY
Through geographical and topographical analysis from late 2005 to early 2006, El-Baz and fellow research professor Eman Ghoneim discovered an ancient mega-lake the size of Massachusetts in northern Darfur, Sudan. They were originally seeking craters in the eastern Sahara region, but the Darfur lake project now has international support from the United Nations to continue research.
WHERE DID THE SAND COME FROM?
Based on El-Baz’s work showing that desert is created from “mother rock that has been beaten up by rain, and moved by rivers” – a concept the International Geological Correlation Program, Part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, dismissed for six years before finally accepting it – the presence of water underneath desert land is more logical than it seems, he said.
“Sand is in low areas, and if it’s brought by water, the collection places are lakes. If it’s in a low area for a long period of time, it will seep. If there is seeping, there will be a lake underground and there will be groundwater,” he said.
BU’s Center for Remote Sensing was the first to use subsurface thermal imaging to seek out groundwater sources that may provide drinking water and irrigation for Sudanese people; similar work El-Baz did in the ’80s in his home country–Egypt. He produced 150,000 acres of usable farmland that now produces wheat, chickpeas and peanuts where there once was only sand.
PLAYING ‘HOT AND COLD’
In what began as a search for ancient rivers, Ghoneim found a large area underneath the eastern Sahara desert about 20 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the surrounding rock, and the team observed it using thermal sensing techniques for three consecutive days.
Constant sunlight on deserts raises the temperature of surface soil. Water absorbs a lot of heat as it evaporates, actually lowering the temperature of the soil rather than raising it, Ghoneim explained.
Thus, Ghoneim’s interest in the marked temperature difference in this particular area — she believed there was a large body of water underneath the surface.
Three major rivers and four rivulets seem to have fed into the mega-lake more than 11,000 years ago, Ghoneim continued. The porous sandstone underneath could easily hold water that runs off mountains west of the desert, and still does, she said.
“When I first found this [shoreline], they told me it was an ancient road,” she said. “When I found little riverbeds coming right up to the line, then stopping, I thought that this had to be a shore.”
WATER: AT THE ROOT OF THE CONFLICT
Of the many factors contributing to the ongoing Darfur conflict, water is key – and drilling wells into the underground lake could set the country on the path to peace by providing for its people and for the thousands of UN peacekeepers promised.
“Whether it’s from [the UN] or other international help, just clean drinking water, food and a place to live, that’s what these people need,” said College of Arts and Sciences junior Rebecca Burkhart, president of BU Save Darfur.
“Many of the rebels believed the Sudanese government was not satisfying their obligation to supply its citizens with food and water, and this combined with other issues to lead the conflict further,” she said in an email.
Right now, 7,000 African Union soldiers are the only peacekeeping force in the region. The UN promised 26,000 peacekeepers in early August, but the September deaths of ten AU peacekeepers have kept the UN and other international aid groups from sending in troops – and finding water for those that do make it there is a pressing problem.
AN IDEA THAT HOLDS WATER
The only option the UN had entertained before the lake’s discovery was flying in bottled water, which El-Baz said is implausible.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with El-Baz in July to discuss taking such a well-drilling project – dubbed “1,000 Wells for Darfur” – under its wing.
“He was very excited about the prospect of water both for the people of Darfur and more specifically for the 26,000 people that the UN was going to send to Darfur for peacekeeping,” El-Baz said.
“This scientific study has vast geopolitical implications,” El-Baz said. “And more importantly, a significant aspect to serve a humanitarian cause.”
NO TRIP JUST YET
Because the discovery was made by analyzing satellite data but no field visits, the next step is for El-Baz and Ghoneim to go to Sudan. El-Baz arranged a visit with Sudan President Omar al-Bashir this past June to discuss the Center’s research and the possibility of drilling a thousand wells for water in the region.
“[President al-Bashir] immediately saw the validity of the scientific research and stated this resolves the main problem of Darfur, which is water,” El-Baz said.
Ghoneim said they intend to collaborate with universities in Sudan as well as Cairo University to determine the size of the lake and whether the water is fit for domestic use.
The ancient lake will require field confirmation of surface area and volume, so the research now shifts from remote sensing to on-the-ground geophysics – but the very struggle El-Baz and Ghoneim hope to help end is keeping them from getting to work.
Peace talks between rebel groups and the Sudanese government are scheduled for Oct. 27, and the researchers planned to visit Darfur in November, but the trip is currently on hold.
“The problem is that there is still war there and I don’t think the government can protect us 100% if we go there to do field work right now,” Ghoneim said.
A JOB NEVER DONE
For now, El-Baz is directing his work all over the globe: Non-governmental organizations like UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders have appealed to him for help in finding well sites in crisis areas.
And he’s getting help, too. Because the lake straddles the border of Sudan and neighboring Egypt and because Egypt has good experience drilling wells in the desert, El-Baz appealed to the Egyptian government for help in the Darfur region.
“As soon as I got back to my office, he sent me a letter saying he would drill 20 wells at their own cost,” he said. “I originally asked for 10.”
He said he continues to do groundwater research for the simple satisfaction of helping people who need it the most.
“I don’t know them, they don’t know me, I’ll never see them again, but I know I helped them,” El-Baz said. “Water is life and if you don’t have it, you’re in deep trouble. But if you can provide it . . . it makes all the scientific research worthwhile.”