Beneath Africa, Survey Finds 'Huge' Water Reserves

Posted by timothy on Saturday April 21, 2012 @06:21PM from the first-the-moon-now-this dept.

gambit3 writes with this news, carried by the BBC: "Scientists say the notoriously dry continent of Africa is sitting on a vast reservoir of groundwater. They argue that the total volume of water in aquifers underground is 100 times the amount found on the surface. Across Africa more than 300 million people are said not to have access to safe drinking water. Freshwater rivers and lakes are subject to seasonal floods and droughts that can limit their availability for people and for agriculture. At present only 5% of arable land is irrigated."

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Re:No they don't by tsa · 2012-04-21 21:26 · Score: 4, Informative

It doesn't help Africa that the Pope and George Bush both told the many many catholics there not to use contraception because... well, I don't know actually.

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Re:No they don't by ceoyoyo · 2012-04-21 22:47 · Score: 5, Informative

We had effective contraception and abortion LONG before the 60s. There is a long history of resource rich societies NOT breeding as much as would be expected from a simple resource utilization model.