Illustration by Hugh Syme Photographs by Walter Fernandes Space Dowser

THE SPACE DOW

ILLUSTRATION BY HUGH SYME PHOTOGRAPHS BY WALTER FERNANDES SPACE DOWSER

A globe-trotting geologist uses satellites and other remote-sensing platforms to ﬁnd water under some of the world’s thirstiest places.

BY VINCE BEISER AFRICA

JAM Study Area ANGOLA

Joint Aid Management Study Area

he Land Cruiser rattles and from the cramped vehicle, Gachet has inding more fresh water is one bumps down a stripe of rut- bounded out, scrambled over a hillock of the paramount challenges of ted dirt carving through the and found a low, clear patch of sandy F the 21st century. Nearly one- brush in this remote corner yellow soil. third of the human race lacks reliable ofT southern Angola. Half a mile to the “Right here, Freddy,” Gachet re- access to clean water, according to the west, the tranquil blue Atlantic glimmers quests in French-accented English. International Water Management In- in the African sun. To the east, miles of Freddy Chambers, the beefy lead stitute. Some 3 million people — most spiky desert grass fade away to a range driller whose thick salt-and-pepper hair of them children — die every year from of sere mountains. The last village lies and mustache lend him a passing re- diseases spread by contaminated water. miles behind us, the next miles ahead. semblance to Saddam Hussein, drives a A 2007 report by the U.N. Environ- In the front seat, Alain Gachet, a shovel into the earth. Gachet practically ment Program predicts that by 2025, if su

plump, boyish 58-year-old, his thick vibrates with excitement as he watches. population growth and environmental H eja

crest of silver hair crammed under a About 2 feet down, muddy gray water degradation continue apace, 1.8 billion D leather Indiana Jones hat, is focused starts bubbling into the hole. Both people will live in countries with “abso- intently on the laptop balanced on his men’s faces split into grins. lute water scarcity.”

knees. The computer is plugged into Gachet ﬁlls an empty juice bottle A former oil industry geologist, , type by design

a tiny GPS unit set on the dashboard. with the cloudy liquid, strains it through Gachet has developed a path-break- NASA On the screen, a thin yellow line a portable ﬁlter and drinks. “Fresh wa- ing, high-tech system that could help tracking our progress creeps forward ter,” he says and bursts out laughing. slake that growing thirst. The key: over a map stippled with thousands of It’s an extraordinary ﬁnd, not only using satellites high above the Earth’s

differently colored squares. because the area is so dry, but because surface to see what’s underneath it. map courtesyI; locator RT “Stop here!” Gachet cries sud- underground water this close to the By combining terabytes of space- achet/ denly. sea would normally be too salty to based photographic imagery, ground- G lain The driver brakes in the middle of drink. Gachet knew there would be penetrating radar and topographic A the track. By the time three South Af- fresh water in this spot, though; mes- data — much of which has only ap courtesy

rican drillers and I extricate ourselves sages from outer space told him so. recently become available — Gachet M

30 MILLER-McCUNE / NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2009 A Joint Aid Management Land Cruiser, south of Benguela, Angola.

creates multispectral maps that are hundreds of miles in war-blasted plunge almost immediately into an even proving excellent guides for finding Angola. Because it costs an average more devastating civil war. The two undiscovered underground aquatic of $10,000 to bore a hole for a well, main factions became Cold War cat’s- resources. At the height of the Darfur the group has a major incentive to paws, with the Soviet Union and Cuba crisis, the United Nations called on increase its hit rate. Joint Aid Manage- arming the governing Movimento Pop- Gachet to help find sustainable loca- ment brought in Gachet to help them ular de Libertacao de Angola, and the tions for camps in Chad that now figure out where to dig. U.S. and South Africa backing the rebel house thousands of refugees. It was “It’s the first time I’m working not Uniao Nacional para a Independencia the first time such technology had in a war zone but in a reconstruction Total de Angola. The fighting ground been used in a humanitarian emergen- area,” Gachet told me when I first met on for 27 years, until the MPLA finally cy. “Gachet’s work was an extremely him in JAM’s compound, a fenced-off beat UNITA down. The war left as important contribution at a time when patch of desert full of trucks, hous- many as 1.5 million Angolans dead, it was not sure that [the U.N.] would ing trailers and a small processed food factories and cities in ruins, and roads be able to provide water for the long factory on the outskirts of Benguela, a and farms infested with landmines. term for all refugees,” says Marc- coastal city in southern Angola. “Emer- Today, seven years after the shoot- Andre Bunzli, a former U.N. official gency situations are very frustrating. ing stopped, Angola is still pretty much who worked with Gachet in Chad. You maintain people in camps, but you a basket case. The United Nations Since then, Gachet has located water don’t deal with sustainable develop- ranks it as one of the world’s poorest in Darfur itself, as well as in parts of ment. It’s crazy, because you create a countries despite its enormous natural Afghanistan, Iraq and Eritrea. generation of beggars. Here, I hope the resources. Twice the size of Texas, An- I joined Gachet last summer for wells can bring prosperity and stability.” gola is rich in diamonds, gold and other the kickoff of a new project. Joint Aid This beleaguered southern African minerals, not to mention enormous Management, a South Africa-based nation can certainly use both. Colo- oil reserves that are only beginning to humanitarian group, recently began a nized by Portugal for centuries, Angola be seriously tapped. New five-star ho- campaign to provide food and water won independence in 1975 after a tels are surging up from the potholed to some 450 schools scattered over lengthy guerrilla struggle — only to streets of the capital, Luanda, and a

MILLER-McCUNE.COM 31 NEARLY ONE-THIRD OF THE HUMAN RACE LACKS RELIABLE ACCESS TO CLEAN WAT ER, ACCORDING TO THE INTERNATIONAL WAT ER MANAGEMENT INSTITUTE. SOME 3 MILLION PEOPLE — MOST OF THEM CHILDREN — DIE EVERY YEAR FROM DISEASES SPREAD BY CONTA MINAT ED WAT ER.

tiny elite with connections to President ings, surrounded by acres of mud-brick worked in this church-run hospital for Jose Eduardo dos Santos is reportedly huts roofed with thatch or corrugated 18 years. “Most people get their water pocketing fortunes in petro-dollars. tin held down with rocks. from the river. It’s very contaminated. But there’s not much sign of that new In the spartan hospital, dozens of Everyone washes their clothes and wealth elsewhere. An estimated 70 per- scrawny, undersized children sprawl bathes in it. But people don’t have cent of the nation’s 13 million inhabit- listlessly on thin mattresses or lie in the enough wood or gas to boil the water. ants live on less than one U.S. dollar arms of their stoic mothers. One or two Wells would be a huge help.” a day; 35 percent are malnourished. cry insistently, but quietly — they don’t A chronic lack of basic sanitation and have the strength to scream. Many achet has been investigating health care help give Angola the world’s have the distended bellies and open what lies beneath African second-highest infant-mortality rate. sores that indicate extreme protein G soil almost his entire life. He Those who survive can expect to die deﬁciency. Nearly all have severe diar- was born in northern Madagascar in before reaching the age of 42. rhea, an ailment that’s typically caused 1951, the son of French colonial civil Lack of clean water is one of the key by unclean water and can be fatal if left servants. His father, a botanist, started factors driving those appalling statistics. untreated. Every now and then, out- taking him on treks into the rainforest One day, I visited a children’s hospital breaks of water-borne cholera bring in when he was 4 years old. That’s when in Cubal, a small town in the grasslands even sicker kids. Gachet fell in love with rocks. Prehis- southeast of Benguela. Cubal consists How big a problem is water? “Gran- toric fossils were everywhere. He was of a few streets of government ofﬁces dissimo,” says Sister Milagros Moreno, fascinated by the story of how the con- and shops housed in low cement build- the redoubtable Spanish nun who has tinents had split apart eons ago, leaving

32 MILLER-McCUNE / NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2009 A child carries water from a well near Baia Farta. Opposite: Mud houses on the margin of Angola’s fertile Rio Coporolo valley. the history of their union inscribed in was going to buy weapons,” Gachet jungle, marking the spot in each river layers of subterranean stone. says. “I was losing the pride of work- where they pulled out nuggets. Then As an adult, naturally, he became ing for this company.” he bought newly available radar im- a geologist. He worked for ELF, the So he set up his own, which he ages of the area taken by the Ameri- French oil giant, for two decades, help- eventually dubbed Radio Technolo- can space shuttle. The radar could ing to find new oil and gas fields from gies International. In 1996, Gachet penetrate clouds and jungle to give Gabon to Holland’s portion of the was contacted by a mining outfit that Gachet a rough sense of the shape North Sea. “I’ve always been involved wanted to locate the source of the and texture of the land beneath — big in exploration,” he says. “I tell people gold their Pygmy workers in the Re- clues to its underlying geology. By where the wealth is, how deep down public of Congo kept finding in rivers. overlaying those images onto his GPS and how they can reach it by drilling.” There were few maps of the area, and data points, he was able to locate the But he grew disillusioned working aerial photographs were no help; the gold’s source. “I had the illumination in the Republic of Congo during the rainforest canopy was too dense. that I was in front of a completely new civil war of the 1990s. “I was the one Gachet turned to two new pieces way to explore the planet,” he says. who had to co-sign our checks to the of technology. Using an early GPS That “new way” is known as re- government. It was clear the money unit, he followed the Pygmies into the mote sensing — the use of imagery

34 MILLER-McCUNE / NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2009 A trek through shaly badlands helps create a geologic map. Opposite: Alain Gachet with armed guards at the JAM compound, and (bottom) Gachet matching satellite maps to readings from a GPS device.

collected from space to find things on graphical data gathered by the space proudest achievements, this colossal the ground. Gachet has integrated a shuttle. That has enabled researchers underground pipeline carries water suite of such technologies into his ex- for the first time to create 3-D views of from an aquifer under the Sahara to the ploratory work. C-band radar used by any area on the planet. “It’s a fantas- desert nation’s coastal cities. “Billions satellites maintained by Canada and tic gift from the United States to the of cubic meters of water were being the European Space Agency penetrates world,” Gachet says. lost into the sand,” Gachet recalls. He the ground to a depth of about 50 cen- Using these technologies, Gachet passed on his findings to the Libyan timeters. Japan’s JERS-1 satellite pro- continues to find oil, diamonds and government and a few months later, was vides L-band radar, which goes down other subterranean treasures for big cor- surprised to find himself giving a per- as far as 18 meters. NASA’s Landsat porations. In 2002, while studying radar sonal presentation to Qaddafi. Gachet satellites record images of the Earth images of the Libyan desert for Shell, was hoping to win a contract to monitor using eight different wavelengths, he noticed evidence of huge amounts the pipeline. He never heard back about from infrared to visible light. The of moisture underground. After some that — but he did hear from friends most recent addition to this arsenal of research, he realized he was looking at that a furious Qaddafi had executed the space-based imagery became available leaks from Libya’s “Man Made River.” engineers in charge of the project. (The in 2004, when NASA released topo- One of President Muammar Qaddafi’s Libyan embassy would not comment

MILLER-McCUNE.COM 35 A girl draws water Commission for Refugees. “He said,” in Dombe Grande village. Gachet recalls, “‘We have 250,000 refugees along the border between Sudan and Chad; they are dying like flies. Can you help? Quickly?’” Ga- chet agreed and spent the next four months working up a map of some 80,000 square kilometers of the area. Gachet does most of the work on computers in his home office in a 15th- century chateau in southern France. But to be sure of his results, he has to get his feet in the mud. Later that year, a U.N. plane dropped him in the eastern Chadian city of Abeche. From there, he and a driver set out by Land Rover to the desert refugee camps. “It was the most terrible thing I ever faced in my life,” Gachet recalls. “Children with bullet wounds. The dead being collected in trucks.” Gachet spent days inspecting the areas WATEX indicated contained moisture. He marked the ones that panned out with a pile of rocks and his own handprint in white paint. Along the way, he and his driver strayed into a minefield, got lost in a sandstorm and ran so low on food they had nothing to eat but onions and locusts. “He’s a very coura- geous guy,” says Firoz Verjee, a water researcher at George Washington University’s Institute for Crisis, Di- saster and Risk Management who has worked with Gachet. “He’ll outdo you on risk every time.” The mission was a success. The UNHCR used Gachet’s data to help se- lect sites for four new refugee camps and when I asked about this incident.) flat areas where it might pool. Ground- rule out seven others. Five years later, That was the beginning of a new penetrating radar shows fractures and “we are still using his excellent maps,” chapter for Gachet. “I thought, ‘You natural dikes that affect the course says Christian Guillot, UNCHR’s head are finding leaks,’” he says. “‘That of water’s flow. Radar has a critical of water issues for eastern Chad. means you can find groundwater that shortcoming, though, when it comes to On the strength of that job, Gachet no one else can see.’” He began build- reading the ground’s surface: It makes was contracted by the U.S. Agency for ing a system, dubbed WATEX, to find a rough, pebble-strewn surface look International Development to map all water by remote sensing. the same as one containing significant of Darfur — another 135,000 square The process involves mapping the moisture. One of Gachet’s key break- kilometers. According to Abdalla Ab- geology not just of the targeted area throughs was figuring out a process for delsalam Ahmed, who holds the U.N. but of the entire watershed that feeds telling the difference between the two. Educational, Scientific and Cultural into it. Topographical data is an essen- Gachet’s WATEX was well devel- Organization chair in water resources at tial ingredient, allowing Gachet to see oped by 2004 when he got a call from Khartoum’s Omdurman Islamic Uni- slopes that water would run down and a friend working with the U.N.’s High versity, the WATEX data increased the

36 MILLER-McCUNE / NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2009 IN ANGO L A, GACHET HAD TO STA RT PRACTICALLY FROM SCRATCH. “MUCH OF THE GEOLOGICAL INFORMATION WAS DESTROYED DURING THE FIGHTING, AND THERE’S NO RAINFA LL DATA, BECAUSE WHO CARED ABOUT COLLECTING THAT DURING THE WAR?” HE SAYS.

drilling success rate from 33 percent to preferably wells deep enough to be of information — well location, water more than 90 percent, halving associ- free of contamination by animal and quality, type of stone — is added to ated costs and significantly speeding up human waste and other toxins. The the WATEX database, constantly re- work. The amount of water found near tricky part is figuring out where to fining Gachet’s picture of the area. the biggest refugee camps is enough dig them. “In most places, we liter- for several million people. At least 300 ally drive around for days looking for achet isn’t the only research- wells have been dug based on Gachet’s promising spots to drill,” says Cham- er using satellites as modern water-target map. bers, the South African driller. Gdowsing rods. Farouk El- Gachet is spending a full week Baz, a researcher at Boston University, n Angola, Gachet had to start exploring the area to confirm and made headlines in 2007 when he practically from scratch. “Much fine-tune his findings. He scrambles announced that, using remote sens- Iof the geological information was up and down hillsides like a merry ing techniques similar to Gachet’s, he destroyed during the fighting, and mountain gnome, breaking off bits had discovered what appeared to be a there’s no rainfall data, because who of stone with his ever-present ham- vast lake of water hidden beneath the cared about collecting that during the mer, determining the area’s geologic blood-soaked sands of Darfur. war?” he says. makeup. He notes verdant strips of The Egyptian-born El-Baz has a So from his desk in Provence, he trees and grasses running through the serious track record. He spent the late used remote sensing to build his own scrubby flatlands — evidence that the 1960s training NASA astronauts on geologic map of 5,000 square kilome- underground water-carrying fracture lunar and earth geology. Since then, ters of southwestern Angola. It shows he expected to find is indeed there. he’s turned his attention to finding the various rock layers, soil types and Whenever a village appears in an area water in deserts, studying wastelands fissures, and how all those factors where his map indicates there’s an from the Arabian Peninsula to In- conspire to direct the underground underground aquifer, he investigates. dia. Several years ago, he discovered flow of water from inland rainfall and More often than not, the locals have a massive underground aquifer in rivers toward the coast. Once his mul- already dug some kind of well, proving Egypt that today irrigates 150,000 tidimensional map was ready, he hit the existence of the aquifer. acres of farmland. the ground to see how accurate it was. In one little copse of scraggly El-Baz’s purported lake could The coastal plain where most of trees, for instance, we find a circle of have enormous ramifications because Joint Aid Management’s schools are stones, cemented together and with Darfur’s chronic and worsening water located is semi-arid, an area remi- two railroad tracks set across the top. shortage is one of the key factors set- niscent of Southern California, with A barefoot man in shorts and a T-shirt ting the locals at each other’s throats. rolling, dun-colored flatlands and hills is hauling up bucketloads of water by Soon after announcing his discovery, stubbled with wiry grasses, bushes and hand to fill a collection of plastic jerry El-Baz met with top Sudanese and cacti. There’s certainly some water cans. Later he’ll lug them back to his Egyptian government officials as well here; a number of rivers and streams village of mud-and-thatch huts about as U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki cut through on their way to the sea. In a mile away. In another unpromising Moon. All concerned promised to each one we pass in the Land Cruiser, patch of scrubland, we encounter a back a major effort, grandly titled children swim, women wash clothes handful of women, several with infants “1,000 Wells for Darfur,” to develop and men bathe, and, often, clean their lashed to their backs with colorful this underground aquatic resource. prized motorbikes. Goats, pigs, cows cloths, washing clothes in plastic tubs. But two years later, not a single and dogs roam on the banks, relieving The water they’re using comes from a hole has been drilled. El-Baz says the themselves where they will. It’s an exu- well that is nothing more than a hole ongoing fighting has kept him from berant, colorful scene — but it makes at the bottom of a hand-dug crater. taking a technical team to do the on- for tremendously unsanitary water. Gachet scurries down to sample the site geophysical research required to Under such circumstances, wells water, much to the women’s surprise confirm the water really is there, and are the best bet for drinking water — and amusement. Each of these grains if so, precisely where. (Gachet, inci-

MILLER-McCUNE.COM 37 WHENEVER A VILLAGE APPEARS IN AN AREA WHERE HIS MAP INDICATES THERE’S AN UNDERGROUND AQUIFER, HE INVESTIGATES. MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, THE LOCALS HAV E ALREADY DUG SOME KIND OF WELL, PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF THE AQUIFER.

dentally, thinks El-Baz is mistaken, mitting atrocities against the people and that the lake has long since dried of Darfur. The indictment raises a up.) In the meantime, much of the question: What would Bashir actually initial enthusiasm around the project do with the water? seems to have evaporated. The Egyp- “New water resources provide as tian government, which had promised many perils as hopes depending on the to drill 40 wells in the lake area, is politics of how the water is controlled,” now looking elsewhere. The United Darfur expert Alex de Waal wrote in Nations was willing to help, El-Baz a recent paper for the Social Science says, but no one ponied up funds. Research Council about El-Baz’s un- The “1,000 Wells for Darfur” Web site derground lake. Those resources could has been taken down. The only firm be used for the benefit of all, “[but] commitment is from the Sudanese given the opportunity, Khartoum is government, which has promised to likely to utilize [them] to reward its local allies with ownership of the most For more on pursuing and conserving productive new farms.” De Waal’s con- clean water, go to Miller-McCune clusion: “The aquifer is no solution to .com/archives/tags/Water the region’s crisis, and if mishandled could even worsen the conflict.” dig a grand total of five wells. At best, Even in the absence of such ugly El-Baz says, it will be a year before politics, the overall lack of development any drilling begins. in much of sub-Saharan Africa means That story points out the limita- that just finding and drilling a well isn’t tions of the work El-Baz and Gachet enough. “We have a systematic problem do. They may be able to find water of wells not being maintained,” says Washing clothes with — but the water might not be where Anthony Jones, JAM’s program direc- brackish well water, it’s needed. El-Baz’s purported lake tor for southern Africa. “We come in, south of Baia Farta. is in Sudan’s northern desert, nearly drill a well, install a hand pump. But a 200 miles from population centers. year or two later, the pump breaks, and Even if there is water there, the wells the local people don’t know what to do. “It’s like moving from a Toyota to a to tap it will be fantastically expen- So they go back to hand-dug wells and Mercedes, in terms of the amount of sive — about $500,000 each, El-Baz other less-safe water resources.” detail it provides. It’s going to increase estimates. “There’s no road anywhere The remote sensing work isn’t our hit rate tremendously.” near the place,” he explains. “They cheap, either. Gachet volunteered his And WATEX has applications will need to bring in everything — time on the ground in Angola but did beyond simply targeting wells or quarters, water, equipment, food.” charge JAM $50,000 for creating the even finding new sources of water in Politics is at least as big an ob- water-target map. emergency situations. It can support stacle as logistics and cost. One of In short, Gachet’s WATEX system long-term development. The system the lake project’s most enthusiastic is no silver bullet for the developing can, for instance, identify the best backers, El-Baz says, is Sudanese world’s water woes. But it can certain- places to build dams across wadis, President Omar al-Bashir — whom ly help. “The technology far surpasses capturing the rains that briefly flood the International Criminal Court our expectations,” says Jim Lutzweiler, arid places — eastern Chad, for ex- recently indicted on charges of com- JAM’s head of strategic development. ample — every winter. It can also

38 MILLER-McCUNE / NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2009 identify agriculture-friendly soil types available to anybody,” he says. “WA- unmatched but uniformly spotless and economically valuable mineral TEX should allow us to avoid future white shirts. In the school’s court- deposits. “It’s expensive, but it’s a wars linked to water.” yard, a group of boys and girls clus- great development tool,” Jones says. That goal is perhaps a tad ambi- ter around one of the key resources “I can see it being very useful to us in tious. Remote sensing is, after all, that keeps them healthy when so terms of ﬁguring out where schools just a tool for ﬁnding water, and many other local children aren’t. and towns should be.” tools can always be misused. But put One by one, they wash their hands Gachet is thinking bigger. He’s to work properly, this one can make under the trickle dribbling out of the planning trips to the U.S. to try to a critical difference. metal pipe of a hand-pumped well, drum up interest from major founda- In Cubal, after showing me the then cup them for a drink of clean, tions and other potential backers to hospital, Sister Moreno gives me a fresh water. M2 apply WATEX on a massive scale. tour of the rest of the compound. It “We could create a consistent picture includes a sizeable church and an Vince Beiser is a Miller-McCune of all of Africa and make the results elementary school full of children in contributing editor based in Los Angeles.

MILLER-McCUNE.COM 39