A new technique using satellite radar images may hold the key to providing the water needs of 200,000 Sudanese living in sweltering heat in camps along the Chadian border. In many camps each person is limited to just five litres of water for all the refugees needs, including washing, cooking and drinking.

Alain Gachet, a geologist who spent most of his working life exploring for oil and mining companies, has developed a system that uses satellites orbiting 800 km above the earth to search for water.

By using the visual images produced by Nasa shuttle missions to check the surface features, combined with two forms of radar to look deep below the soil, it is possible to plot likely areas for drilling across vast areas. The watersheds in the region can be mapped, the slope of the land and - most importantly - the best sites for drilling.

Craig Sanders, head of operations in Chad and Darfur for the UNHCR, says the technique is unique: "It has saved us a lot of time and energy searching for water in an area twice the size of Switzerland.”

This is the first time Dr Gachet's approach has been applied in a large-scale, humanitarian crisis, says Firoz Verjee, from the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at the George Washington University.

Contact: Alain Gachet, Radar Technologies France, alain.gachet@radar-technologies.com, http://www.radar-technologies.com/s_watex.htm

Source: BBC News, 20 Jul 2005

Tags: emergencies