RE: HUGE HUGE water resources exist under Africa Its been known for a long time that plenty of water exists under Ethiopia, back in March I posted a couple of articles I found, they say the under ground water source is the size of Lake Erie ... which would make it the 10th largest fresh water lake in the world ... here are those two articles again ...
Mark
Here’s two interesting articles for anyone who wonders if there’s enough water in Ethiopia to sustain solution mining and agriculture irrigation, this might be the answer. We all know the Nile can provide lots of water and other lakes can also add to the solution but .... did you know Ethiopia is home to the 10th largest freshwater lake in the world ???
| Water find 'may end Darfur war' |
| A huge underground lake has been found in Sudan's Darfur region, scientists say, which they believe could help end the conflict in the arid region. Some 1,000 wells will be drilled in the region, with the agreement of Sudan's government, the Boston University researchers say. Analysts say competition for resources between Darfur's Arab nomads and black African farmers is behind the conflict. More than 200,000 Darfuris have died and 2m fled their homes since 2003. "Much of the unrest in Darfur and the misery is due to water shortages," said geologist Farouk El-Baz, director of the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing, according to the AP news agency. "Access to fresh water is essential for refugee survival, will help the peace process, and provides the necessary resources for the much needed economic development in Darfur," he said. 'Significant' The team used radar data to find the ancient lake, which was 30,750 km2 - the size of Lake Erie in North America - the 10th largest lake in the world. A similar discovery was made in Sudan's neighbour Egypt, where wells have been used to irrigate 150,000 acres of farmland, the researchers say. The discovery is "very significant", Hafiz Muhamad from the lobby group Justice Africa told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme. "The root cause of the conflict is resources - drought and desertification in North Darfur." He says this led the Arab nomads to move into South Darfur, where they came into conflict with black African farmers. He also said that it has long been known there was water in the area but the government had not paid for it to be exploited. French researcher Alain Gachet has also been using satellite images to look for new water resources in Darfur. Last month, the UN Environmental Programme (Unep) said there was little prospect of peace in Darfur unless the issues of environmental destruction were addressed. It said deserts had increased by an average of 100 km in the last 40 years, while almost 12% of forest cover had been lost in 15 years. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said climate change was partly to blame for the conflict in Darfur in an editorial for US newspaper The Washington Post in June. |
A New Lake in Darfur, Sudan?
By Tanzina Vega ,
REUTERS BOSTON, July 18 (Reuters) - A newly found imprint of a vast, ancient underground lake in Sudan's Darfur could restore peace to the region by providing a potential water source to an area ravaged by drought, a U.S. geologist says. "What most people don't really know is that the war, the instability, in Darfur is all based on the lack of water," said Farouk el-Baz, director of Boston University's Center for Remote Sensing.
The potential water deposits were found with radar that allowed researchers to see inside the depths of the desert sands. The images, el-Baz said, uncovered a "megalake" of 19,110 square miles (30,750 sq km) -- three times the size of Lebanon.
International experts estimate 200,000 people have died in four years of rape, killing and disease in Darfur, violence the United States calls genocide. Sudan rejects that term and puts the death toll at 9,000.
Widespread environmental problems are a root cause of Sudan's violence, the U.N. Development Programme said in a report last month, noting that deserts had spread southwards by an average of 62 miles (100 km) over the past four decades.
Many refugees from Darfur settled in regions that were once the domain of nomads, straining water resources and sowing conflict between farmers and nomads, said el-Baz. "So now, if you find water for the farmers ... in addition to that for the nomads ... for agricultural production, to feed them, to give them grain, then you resolve the problem completely," he told Reuters in an interview.
His initiative, called 1,000 Wells for Darfur, has gained the support of the Egyptian government, which has pledged to start building an initial 20 wells.
El-Baz, who expects groundwater deposits below the surface can be drilled for water, hopes for backing from other regional governments and has urged nongovernmental organizations to get involved. "As we began to look into this, we realized we were dealing with a vast low area, a depression. And then we began to look at the details of the depression and we actually found the terraces, meaning the edges of the lake, way up on the nearby mountains," he said. "That's why we call it a megalake, because it is an incredibly large lake. It is the size of the state of Massachusetts, or Lake Erie."
Researchers said the ancient lake would have contained about 607 cubic miles (2,530 cubic km) of water when full during past humid climate phases.
"One thing is certain, much of the lake's water would have seeped through the sandstone substrate to accumulate as groundwater," el-Baz said in a report.
El-Baz, who worked on NASA's Apollo program as a supervisor of lunar science planning, conducted similar research in Egypt that led to the construction of 500 wells in an arid region of his native country.
That project helped irrigate up to 150,000 acres (60,700 hectares) of farmland where wheat and other crops are grown. Solving Problems with Research