|
The Middle East is one of the most water-scarce regions on Earth. The United Nations World Water Development Report cites six Arab countries among the top ten water-poor countries of the world, three of which top the list. And, according to a report issued by the World Water Council in 2002, it is expected that by the year 2025, the per capita availability of water is likely to decrease by 50%.
Little would one suspect that underneath the massive, flowing sand dunes in the vast deserts of Arabia, lies part of the solution to the region's water worries. Dr. Farouk El-Baz, Research Professor and Director of the Center for Remote Sensing at Boston University, however, believes that if we learn to understand the desert, and how to live with it, we will find ways to exploit its vast natural resources.
When All Was Green
"The places we call deserts today were not deserts only 5,000 years ago," said El-Baz, explaining the origins of desert water to IslamOnline.net. "From 5,000 to 11,000 years ago, they were savannah-like environments. They were covered by grass. There were rivers, lakes, plants, animals and man. Before that, there was a dry period. Before that, there was another wet period between 25,000 and 35,000 years ago, and on and on. The latest cycle that we could measure is between 270,000 and 320,000 years ago. And we assume that the cycles continue beyond that."
"Now we ask: is the water in the ground today the result of yesterday's rain? We know it is yesterday's rain, but what is yesterday? Is it only a month ago, or is it 10,000 years ago? And we find that the water that we find in most of the deserts of today is really old. It's a combination of young water and very ancient water. For instance, much of the water in the Western desert of Egypt is 30,000 years old…This means that the water has been going through rock [for thousands of years] and staying there."
The Ancient Passageways
|
| Dr. Farouk El-Baz with IslamOnline.net's Science Editor, Nadia El-Awady |
Dr. El-Baz has been studying deserts for the past 25 years of his life. He has done pioneering work in applying space photography to the understanding of arid terrains and locating underground water resources in these most unlikely of places. His work has helped in dispelling the public misconception that deserts were man-made and has explained how arid lands originated and evolved as a result of global climatic variations.
Using space photography, Dr. El-Baz studied the ancient passageways of water in today's deserts that flowed from the high mountainous areas that received rain, to the lower plains. He found that most of these passageways, or wadis, coincided with the lines of faults and fractures in the Earth. Faults and fractures, he explained, are places where the land moves, and as the plates of the Earth moved against each other, the rock in between was crushed. This crushing process caused the Earth to become more porous, allowing water to seep through the Earth and allowing easier erosion of the rock itself.
The Origin of Sand
In order to understand how water was formed underneath today's deserts, Dr. El-Baz explained the origin of sand:
"I was taught that sand was brought in by the wind. But as I looked at the chemistry of sand and at the potential source of sand, I could not believe this to be the case. On the contrary, I found out to my amazement that sand is brought in to the places where it is not by wind, but by water."
El-Baz explained that during the wet periods, rainfall would break up rocks. As these bits and pieces of rocks flowed with the water, they would hit other pieces of rocks, forming smaller and smaller pieces. This grinding process occurred at the bottom of turbulent rivers. The water, loaded with soil and sand resulting from the crushing process, eventually reached depressions in the Earth where it would collect. The soil and sand would also collect in these depressions layer upon layer. When the dry cycle started, the rivers dried and the wind reshaped these resultant deposits into the shapes of dunes.
"This means that sand is borne by water and shaped by the wind," concluded El-Baz. "Saying that - and this is now proven - everywhere in the deserts of the world, it is proven beyond any doubt, that in these low areas of the Earth where there are now sand dunes, were areas where water remained stagnant for a very long period of time, seeping through the underlying rock to be stored as groundwater."
By studying radar images taken of the desert from space, Dr. El-Baz discovered ancient rivers flowing beneath the sand. He and his team drilled in several spots where they believed these ancient rivers to be, based on the space imagery, and lo and behold, "we found enormous amounts of water!", he said.
Egypt 's Hidden Treasure
The largest amount of water found yet has been in Egypt's Western Desert. In Sharq Al-Ouaynat, midway between Lake Nasser and Egypt's border with Libya, 82 wells were drilled. The amount of water discovered in just those 82 wells in that one spot of Egypt's vast Western Desert is enough to irrigate 200,000 acres of land for 100 years, exclaimed El-Baz.
With the additional advantage of fertile soil, wheat and chickpeas were grown, and profits were made from the very first harvest, which does not happen in any land reclamation, explained El-Baz. "They've made money, and they've made profits," he said.
El-Baz cautions, however, that the water in Sharq Al-Ouaynat must be used with care. "It accumulated in old times when it used to rain and it is not being renewed by the rainfall of today. Therefore, there is the fear that if they continue to pump [the water] all the time for a hundred years then there will be absolutely no more," he warned.
The Meadows of Arabia
El-Baz paused to reflect upon a Prophetic Hadith that gives indication to what science has only recently discovered.
Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him as saying, "The Last Hour will not come before wealth becomes abundant and overflowing, so much so that a man takes Zakat out of his property and cannot find anyone to accept it from him, and till the land of Arabia returns to be meadows and rivers."
El-Baz believes that this Prophetic Hadith depicts the cyclic changes in deserts. He believes it also shows that the Arabs were aware that their lands were once green.
The Rub al Khali, the great desert of the Arabian Peninsula, and one of the largest sand deserts of the world, was once full of meadows with rivers, lakes, baboons, deer, sheep and all types of animals, confirmed El-Baz. "Animals just as those we see in Africa now. Back then it wasn't empty. Back then it was full. Now it's just empty and scary," he said.
Innovation a Must
The water in Middle Eastern deserts can only solve the region's water scarcity problems, however, if we are innovative and clever, stressed El-Baz.
"That water is in the middle of the desert, 350 km away from Cairo," he said, referring to the water he discovered in Sharq Al-Ouaynat.
There is one of two solutions, he explained. The water could either be transported somehow to the Nile Valley, to be used in agriculture there, or the water could be used in the nearest region to it that has suitable soil for agriculture.
El-Baz expressed his frustration at the fact that none of that is being done now. "There is no innovation, no imagination in the whole Arab world. We've been generally dependent on what is available now, and we don't really try to do something different," he said. "It took me 13 years to convince the Egyptian Government to drill the [Al-Ouaynat] wells," he added with disappointment.
This one man has done a great deal to guide the Arab world towards the solution of one of its many problems. Now it is up to us to play our role and innovate.
|
