"Huge" water resource exists under Africa

"Huge" water resource exists under Africa

www.bbc.co.uk

Scientists say the notoriously dry continent of Africa is sitting on a vast reservoir of groundwater.

They argue that the total volume of water in aquifers underground is 100 times the amount found on the surface.

The team have produced the most detailed map yet of the scale and potential of this hidden resource.

(visit the link for the full news article)

If true, this is great news for the 300 million or so Africans who currently have no access to quality freshwater. To say nothing of the hundreds of millions more who will feel the pinch as traditional sources completely run dry in the years ahead.

And...100 times the current surface amount is a lot. Could this be used to help the bone-dry Middle East or other parts of the world running critically short of water? Could Africa be poised to become the "Saudi Arabia of water"?

The coming decades have been positied as the "era of water wars," not just in Africa but all over the world. A discovery like this could go a long way to easing the stress of a thirsty planet.



www.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

Sounds like another reason to start another war, find this odd between these facts and the kony awareness (being anti africa as in (let america invade to help the africans out) like the M.E issue.

Could this be a little too late? is this even considered IRONY?

posted

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Great news though hey!!

I thought this was well known and the real reason libya had to be "saved". Some more completely coincidental information, the bush's, sr and junior own over 300k acres in S. America on top of one of the largest aquifers in the world.

reply to post by Leftist


"breaking news" yeah right like an hour ago its not hard to use the "search" it wont bite you

I saw something about the next great war will be over water thought they were crazy and it wasn't here on ATS.

www.heraldsun.com.au...

That was it i am sitting here thinking with the exist desalinization technology how will there ever be a war over water?

I do not get that.

@ neo: Let's hope this indeed does qench the planet's thirst....for both water and for war!

Now that's something both the right and the left can get behind!

Originally posted by eyeinoz
reply to post by Leftist

 

"breaking news" yeah right like an hour ago its not hard to use the "search" it wont bite you

Originally posted by CaptainBeno
posted

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Great news though hey!!

According to the terms and conditions an article may be posted once in Breaking alt news and once elsewhere.

I suggest you read the terms and conditions first before taking it upon yourself to incorrectly police them.

I find this interesting as Africa was once considered the mother land. A shift in things over the next hundred+ years?

reply to post by Leftist



Hey, I wasn't being mean! I was just saying I posted this already. But yes I do believe you are correct.

No problem here!


Good news though hey, I just wonder why this wasn't found earlier?? I mean, we have been trying to find water for yonks in Africa and now it seems it is everywhere........just dig??

Originally posted by Leftist
@ neo: Let's hope this indeed does qench the planet's thirst....for both water and for war!

Now that's something both the right and the left can get behind!

edit on 4/22/2012 by Leftist because: (no reason given)

Doubtful but it would be nice. It would take something much bigger to quench the thirst for war. The thirst for water is so much more realistic.



Anyway, thanks for sharing.

africa will remain a desert and impoverished as the pipes leave it for the farm lands in france and italy, for the cash rich middle east.

I find it bizarre how the most concentrated deposits appear to be under the sahara desert, N africa.

So is this why they lauched the Kony 2012 too to invade Uganda and steal water and oil in the name of "liberation" and "democracy"

This is good news only if the water is easily accessible. The deepest mankind has ever drilled is less than 8 miles.

If most of the water is more than 7 miles deep it will take a very long time to drill and extract it if possible.

It will be a costly project and whoever undertakes the drilling will probably have profits in mind.

Let's hope for the best.

Just think, if the Africans just dug further than 6 feet to bury their dead, they could of found water. Strange world we live in

Originally posted by Jordan River
Just think, if the Africans just dug further than 6 feet to bury their dead, they could of found water. Strange world we live in

Do you actually think Africans are incapable of digging wells?

Or are you just being glib?

Originally posted by Leftist


According to the terms and conditions an article may be posted once in Breaking alt news and once elsewhere.

I suggest you read the terms and conditions first before taking it upon yourself to incorrectly police them.

Well, technically speaking, 'breaking' has to be less than 36 hours old. Your story at the time of your posting appears be more than two days old. Just pointing it out.
Carry on.

Great thread and article!

From South Africa this is certainly true.
A year or so back it didn't rain much in our province, and water restrictions were put in place.
People could only water their gardens or wash their cars after certain hours on certain days, based on a rotation system on odd and even house numbers.
We were encouraged to use "gray water", or used dish and washing water for gardens and so forth.

One way around the rule was to have a borehole sunk on your property, and then to place a clearly visible sign reading "Borehole Water" in front of your property, and then you could sprinkle your lawn to your heart's content.
Within a short while it seemed that every second house had a borehole.
Perhaps because it was untreated, it wasn't advisable to drink however.
Many arid areas however rely on that water, and since the collapse of municipal water plants in some towns, not only livestock, but increasingly people are relying on underground water sources.

Farmers in our arid areas like the Karoo have long relied on boreholes and wind-pumps.
So yes, it seems that underground water is widespread.

The sad thing is the regional pollution.
Around Johannesburg there's a great concern about acid and even radioactive mine water not only contaminating other underground water, but also flowing to the surface.
www.news24.com...
Then there's the fear of frack-mining being introduced to parts of SA, notably to the Karoo area.

With the Chinese spread in African mining adding to the Western strain, that water resource is far from secure.
Unfortunately the very life-giving water may be attracting the wrong types of industries, instead of water for the people.
Considering that contaminated water is surfacing now from mines that closed over 11 years ago, that's a horrific prospect.

reply to post by Leftist


Great!!
So a society so impoverished that they can not provide simple drinking water to the people (having no infrastructure to do so) is sitting hundreds of meters above drinkable water.

How exactly do they access this water?

The British Geological Survey (BGS) which is a partly publicly funded body
has actually found the water.

Read that again.
Partly publicly funded body

Now what?