Not a blade of grass

To find and supply water where none seems to exist, you need:

1. An aquifer (un underground geological formation that stores water and releases water),
2. A mechanism to get water into the aquifer (like a riverbed; it may be dry for the majority of the year, but during a flash flood will fill with water and recharge the nearby aquifer),
3. Both of the above in proximity to the people who need the water.

Our BGC Squared team in Chad manually collected around 15 kilometres of data to locate aquifers nearby to three UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency refugee camps. Using geophysics gadgetry like stainless steel electrodes and electrical currents to "see" into the ground (here, specifically, electrical resistivity tomography), an image of the ground's subsurface is produced. Where resistivity is high, the team knows there's no water (solid rock, for example). So, they look for thick areas of low resistivity which indicates water (and an aquifer) may be present.

After 21 days, our team has identified a number of promising targets so drilling can commence.

BGCers Izzy Rotsaert, Colin Miazga, Dylan Cunningham, and Paul Bauman have now safely returned from Chad. However, as Paul Bauman details in his recent interview with CBC's Matt Galloway on The Current, the situation in Chad is a catastrophe. Without proper funding, the most basic needs of the tens of thousands of refugees in each camp are barely met. In the desert conditions of one of the poorest countries in the world, there's not a blade of grass.

??Listen to Paul's interview

BGC is proud to support our team members as they look to solve critical earth science challenges across the globe. In those situations where our expertise is warranted but funds are scarce, our community investment program, BGC Squared, fills the gaps.

But resources are still limited. Our BGCers working on philanthropic programs may seek help from those willing to give it. In Chad--not surprisingly--refugees did not hesitate to lend a hand.

Paul says,

"There were only four of us. We're recruiting teams from the refugees themselves. And we're working with them, shoulder-to-shoulder, all day, every day [...] Many of them were mothers with multiple children at home, and they can wield a sledgehammer and lay cable as well as any of us. They were fantastic to work with."

The water crisis for Chadian refugees is far from over. But perhaps by continuing to join shoulder-to-shoulder with the people and organizations fighting to change this, we will slowly find ways to change outcomes and bring about hope.

To learn more about BGC Squared, visit our website.