"1,000 Wells For Darfur"

In Darfur, an estimated two-and-a-half million people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands more have been killed in crossfire between warring tribesman and government militia. Relief agencies attribute much of the conflict in the western region of Sudan to water shortages.

A Boston University scientist took that issue to the United Nations yesterday. Farouk El-Baz met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to discuss his mission to tap one thousand wells in Darfur.

El-Baz and his team have located ancient groundwater reserves beneath Sudan's desert by using satellite imagery. This initiative follows his similar, already successful, project in southwest Egypt.

When El-Baz spoke with WBUR's Bob Oakes earlier this week, they started by talking about how the scientist came to find this potential water supply in Sudan.

The audio for this story will be available on WBUR's web site after 10 a.m. on Wednesday.