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Darfur Lake Is Dried Up, Draining Hope

Huge underground lake, a hope for peace, emptied 5K years ago

Posted Jul 20, 2007 4:41 PM CDT

(Newser) – Hopes for an enormous underground lake discovered recently in Darfur might supply enough water to end starvation and violence in the area were dimmed by a second opinion from  a French geologist. The area receives too little rain and has the wrong type of rocks for water storage, said a specialist in mineral and water exploration: the lake probably dried up thousands of years ago.

The lake, discovered by Boston researchers earlier this week, was most likely filled with water between 5,000 and 25,000 years ago. But the specialist contends there is enough water elsewhere in Darfur to help rebuild the economy and end the bloody warfare that has killed 200,000 Darfuris and forced 2 million out of their homes since 2003.

(FILES) Displaced Sudanese women queue at a water point 21 May...
(FILES) Displaced Sudanese women queue at a water point 21 May...   (Getty Images)
(FILES) Refugees wait for water at a refugee camp after they...
(FILES) Refugees wait for water at a refugee camp after they...   (Getty Images)
(FILES) Flies crawl on the face of a Sudanese refugee baby's...
(FILES) Flies crawl on the face of a Sudanese refugee baby's...   (Getty Images)
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