Don't judge a book by its cover. Kenya's Turkana County is notoriously dry, but a survey now shows that it is sitting on a total of 250 trillion litres of groundwater. That is enough to support 40 million people if it is extracted sustainably.
Over the last year, a firm called Radar Technologies International (RTI) has surveyed 36,000 square kilometres of Turkana on behalf of the government.
Most of the water bonanza it discovered lies in five deep aquifers that had not been spotted before. RTI estimates that these reservoirs, in combination with shallower ones already exploited, could provide 3.45 trillion litres of water per year, in perpetuity.
It could be very good news for the region: Turkana County is prone to drought, and struggles to support the Kakuma refugee camp, which is currently home to 120,000 people.
Before the deep extraction can begin, the Kenyan government must check the quality of the water, says Alan MacDonald of the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, UK. It might contain too much fluoride to be drinkable. He says it is also crucial to figure out how long it takes for the aquifers to refill, to avoid taking the water out faster than it is replaced.
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