NASA is looking to help Middle East and North African nations search for water beneath the deserts of the region, one scientist said at a United Nations water conference in Alexandria last week. The plan is to take similar technology used to search for water on Mars and implement it in the region's deserts. Planetary scientist Essam Heggy, a member of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said that water-related conflicts could be sparked as issues of scarcity continue to grow. According to NASA, the technology can detect and find water more than half a mile below the Earth's surface and could be used to find new aquifers in the region's massive deserts. “As global warming continues, the technology could eventually help ward off conflict,” Heggy said at the conference. NASA scans have already revealed an especially arid region of Darfur, Sudan, which is sitting on top of 6,000-year-old valleys and lakes, he told the UN Development Program conference. In Egypt, where the government has said by 2015, water shortages could be a major problem if not tackled today, the announcement of NASA help could go a long way in inhibiting possible conflict, says Mohamed AbuZeid of the Egyptian Water Partnership. “We are looking at all possibilities, but right now there is not a lot of concern over water shortages because the research is not complete, but this could help stem any possibilities,” he said. BM
