In buried lake, hope seen for Darfur - Yahoo! News:
"Scientists have discovered the underground remnants of an ancient lake in Sudan's arid Darfur region, offering hope of tapping a precious resource and easing water scarcity, which experts say is the root of much of the unrest in the region.
The researchers hope to drill at least 1,000 wells in the dusty territory and pump the long-hidden water to ease tensions among communities living there — and strengthen efforts to restore peace in Darfur.
Decades of scarce water and other resources have stoked low-intensity local conflicts that eventually led to a devastating civil war.
The four-year conflict has killed more than 200,000 people, displaced more than 2.5 million others and sparked a regional humanitarian crisis after feeding instability in neighboring Chad and Central African Republic.
'Much of the unrest in Darfur and the misery is due to water shortages,' said geologist Farouk El-Baz, director of the Boston University Center for Remote Sensing, which led the effort that discovered the massive lake in northern Darfur using radar data from space."
Education, science, literacy - whatever you call it - works whenever it is tried. Unfortunately, many of the petty tyrants around the world would rather keep their people down and steal from international aid than to lift them all up (including themselves) to become equal partners with the Western world.
The true test for international aid will be how many wells are actually drilled and how the citizens of Darfur get access to the water.
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