Water for Darfur? A Geologist Meets With Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir

Bev Herzog, a colleague of mine who is the chair of one of my professional societies, the Association of Ground Water Scientists and Engineers (AGWSE) of the National Ground Water Association (NGWA), just informed me of a remarkable meeting between US geologist Dr. Farouk El-Baz and Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir.

Here is Dr. El-Baz's email:

"You will not believe what just happened! A couple of hours ago I met with President Omar al-Bashir to discuss the new find of a dry lake in Northern Darfur, which probably overlies groundwater. So, I told him why discourage anyone from helping to ease the humanitarian crises; why not challenge them to put their money where their mouth is... invite all to come and participate? I offered an initiative: "1000 Wells For Darfur." Any person, organization, foundation or county can take part. Those who provide $10 million or 10 wells will have their name on the wells forever. He agreed enthusiastically. We talked some more and at the end of the meeting I said: I have to give a lecture tonight, shall I announce this initiative or shall I leave it for now? He said 'YES', go ahead and announce it on my behalf. I met later with the UN people and they will plan their work as the first step in the initiative and will help publicize it internationally! God works in mysterious ways indeed."

This is almost too good to be true, but as Bev said, Dr. El-Baz, originally from Egypt, is very well-connected throughout the Middle East. I am somewhat skeptical, but have learned to expect the unexpected.

I will keep you posted. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

"Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity." -- Horace Mann

Comments

[Michael]

Hi, Rod.

Thanks for commenting.

Looks like '1000 Wells for Darfur' never took off.

See:

http://bit.ly/hdTchR

[Rod Downing]

Just stumbled across this on Feb19/11. So what was the follow-up? As a Darfur activist, I never heard of anything coming from the lake discovery. I know the Arab League has promised $2b for development but it hinges on Bashir's "domestication" agenda, which translated might be good for a few people, but is his continued quelling of Darfur under a new title.