Illustration by Hugh Syme Photographs by Walter Fernandes Space Dowser
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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 Tof 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.