Tyler Falk has a
SmartPlanet article about finding water, and lots of it, where you'd least expect it:
Oil and gas companies aren’t the only ones benefitting from improved satellite technology that can spot natural resources deep underground. Now a dry region in Kenya could also be a beneficiary.
An estimated 250 billion cubic meters of underground water in the semi-arid Turkana region in northwest Kenya were recently discovered using satellite technology from Radar Technologies International, a natural resources exploration firm. As Alain Gachet, Radar Technologies International's founder, told The Guardian:
“We processed imagery from the space shuttle,” Gachet said. “This allowed us to build up a detailed surface map. Then we interpreted radar imagery from the Japanese space agency and deep seismic data from the oil industry. With this approach, we were able to peel back the surface of the earth like an onion.”
The region is home to about seven hundred thousand people living on just ten liters of water per day, less than half the daily requirement.
While it is still undetermined if the water is drinkable, according to New Scientist, the key, if it is, will be to tap the aquifers sustainably and extract the water at a lower rate than the aquifers can replenish. Fortunately, the aquifers replenish at a rate of 3.4 billion cubic meters per year, more than the entire country uses in a year. Using the aquifers at a sustainable rate can support forty million people.
Rico says that Kenya's already
got forty million people...
No comments:
Post a Comment