Can New Water Source Save Darfur?

A newly discovered massive underground freshwater lake in Sudan could help alleviate the region's severe drought stress and become a nexus for peace in the Darfur region, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.(National Geographic, MSNBC.com and others first described the discovery in April, but researchers put more certainty on the find yesterday.)

[From the AP story, July 17, 2007]

El-Baz [director of Boston University's Center for Remote Imaging] said water pumped from the underground reservoir -- measuring as large as the state of Massachusetts -- could help ease tensions in Darfur. The wells could enable Darfur's nomadic Arabs to maintain their lifestyle, sedentary communities to flourish and irrigation to kick-start agriculture activities that may feed trade and economic growth in the region, he said during a telephone interview.

Scholars have long documented conflicts over water and the depths that civilizations have gone to protect their supply or deny it to others. Will this deep, blue reservoir under the desert become a font of peace, prosperity and agricultural rebirth? If the discovery lives up to expectations, we can hope. Of course, success will depend on who will control the wells.

(Dr. Peter Gleick's Water Conflict Chronology is online here. To learn more about peace, cooperation around water resources, visit the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Navigating Peace initiative.)

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