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9/1/2003 - Kalahari Earthsuckers: San Sip-Wells vs. Roughneck Rigs: Seducing Water from the Ground by James G. Workman

ICWA LETTERS Since Institute Current World Affairs Crane Rogers Foundation provided fellowships enable outstanding young professionals outside United States write about international areas issues An exempt operating foundation endowed Charles R Crane Institute supported contributions minded individuals foundations TRUSTEES Bryn Barnard Joseph Battat Mary Lynne Bird Steven Butler William F Foote Kitty Hempstone Pramila Jayapal Peter Bird Martin Ann Mische Dasa Obereigner Paul A Rahe Chandler Rosenberger Katharine Sreedhar Edmund Sutton Dirk J Vandewalle HONORARY TRUSTEES David Elliot David Hapgood Pat M Holt Edwin S Munger Richard H Nolte Albert Ravenholt Phillips Talbot Institute Current World Affairs The Crane Rogers Foundation Four West Wheelock Street Hanover New Hampshire 03755 U S A JGW SOUTHERN AFRICA James Workman Donors Fellow Institut studying misuse accretion depletion fresh water supplies southern Africa Kalahari Earthsuckers San Sip Wells Roughneck Rigs Seducing Water Ground James G Workman SEPTEMBER Stage Attraction ZUTSWA Botswana Wrinkled Tebere D burnt donkey fatty mouthful cheek Bushmen where Kalahari When government supplied goods eluded their snares scavenged jackass flamb topped Ditto When donated matches Tebere Maselale fished flint strung around struck stone spark spark grass grass sticks until minutes later picked embers thick fingertips pipeful tobacco marijuana blend On morning Tebere sisters Thaleta Matate brother X their nephew translator Billy Ocean I joined couple huddled aroun flames outskirts Zutswa Pan All appetites sated thirst I somehow resisted donkey brain hooch ravenous would water Last month Israeli built micro desalination ground lacking spare foreign parts The government water tanker deliv No plastic containers within miles direction river A Lost Art Tebere D Maselale among bushmen still practice prehistoric using wells He where delighted learn identical Hollywood heist movie played Frank Sinatra which flowed within And D seemed worried slightest The confidence simply dagga duced Tebere assured place somewhere nearby where thought could inhale water ancestors subtle people thousands years before whites blacks arrived It known Few outsiders method Bushmen recent decades rarely The sipwell practice become Japanese Zen calligraphy New England masonry But Tebere swallowed donkey smacked hobbled remaining donkeys turned playful Let TUVATJERENI Namibia Seven hundred miles north across border Lawrence Prinsloo burnt chunk washed He jabbed cigarettes between inhaled double nicotine passed second drilling partner The En glishman Milford Brickhill They midst nomadic underground water remote parts Kalahari reliance matched Bushmen Granted resources resourcefulness But comfort margins When field opened mystery likely contained donkey As clamps forged A broken breakout spanner wrench coupling drill segments rigged welder When differential collapsed rebuilt scratch Spending weeks isolated testosterone filled cabin fevered stressed jarred bored bruised fatigued injured cross bossy bitter dehydrated sweaty greasy times shower Tebere They recounted UNITA rebels fired instruments Angola government contractors their heads competi donor government funds Malaria Women absent Pay lousy I Brickhill No place I rather added Prinsloo Then added aware scribbling Except maybe athome lovely daughter beautiful Well If Tebere could family quest Lawrence Prinsloo might Lawrence himself already followed footsteps older brother Kobus learned rugged trade their father Willie In lifetime endary driller Willie Prinsloo single handedly sniffed bored yanked water Namibia alone nations drill their entire history Then again Namibia Botswana choice Because neither permanent rivers their because rainfall averages millimeters because percent evaporates transpires through plants percent ephemeral trickles hours Namibia Botswana search grasp squeeze percent infiltrates underground hides mysterious cracks called aquif In geologist Dr Lotz imported first crude borehole drilling machine where Bush could extract water ground Exactly century later Namibia drilled holes which still produce liquid cious Since Namibia million people averages individuals every working Boreholes alone supply homes three quarters livestock third mines fourth irrigated farms But still enough Last month United Nations announced plans aggressively Africa trans boundary aquifers reduce continent populations without water sanitation percent within decade One those Kalahari Karoo aquifer Like trans boundary river aquifer shared Namibia Botswana South Africa unlike river measure understand worse govern No regulate monitor aquifer abuse This legal vacuum generate considerable misunderstanding tension warned UNESCO cials Countries could scramble water possible before powerful neighbor action Transboundary aquifers therefore potential hotspots sources conflict especially regions where fierce competition water resources inten future Already begun To compounding industrial demands distribute fairly water blacks whites under apartheid develop people crowded cities rural areas boreholes deeper deeper remote places Tuvatjereni After Prinsloo Brickhill complete U N sored Northern Livestock Development Programme NOLIDEP contract shift Caprivi Strip punch holes bring water places including ironi cally settlements Bushman families relocated abandoned there decade after independence Prinsloo fired massive flatbed leaned window sleeveless muscled Follow America frontier shaped legendary indus trial figures against advancing mechanized economy cowboy Pecos Bill river bargeman Mike Fink lumberjack Paul Bunyan favorite John Henry hammer whose willpower skill raced steam engine drill tunnel through mountain railroads could follow Their But perhaps Africa transition point frontier light Bushman could still interna tionally financed diesel powered Schramm drilling seduce produce watery future desert reluctant Stage Courtship ZUTSWA Botswana Tebere attracted suitor approach seemed rusty He sought particular since 1980s Hi signal directions driving switched confidence hesitation certainty bumped lurched merrily along To confuse getting conflicting clicks cackles fewer drivers relatives rarely vehicle before I glanced scoured landscape ahead pointed compass needle Left Right Veer HERE Swerving madly I reminded myself shortest tance between places might straight termite mounds wheels Tebere would stranded suspension snapped I first about wells Lawrence Post romantic account attempt remnant noble apricot skinned savage2 The oldest pumped groundwater Africa world It anywhere Falling usually seeps reach straight through Kalahari until basement But random places picked bonded shaped membrane meters That membrane captured rainwater protected underground water slightly upward capillary action within striking tance knows where Emphasis where Formed centuries crusted wells invisible impossible ground without shared herited memory links technology place Tebere dimensional books He D porcupine bushes trees depres Continued In Lost World Kalahari Britain authority Africa bumbles Bechuanaland without until sidekicks humbly suggests where Bushmen sucked water INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS A Borehole Bank Is Born Namibia Leads World Fo rcing Water Genie Back Bottle1 WINDHOEK Namibia Once again dehydrated capital become under siege Its relentless creasingly hostile2 enemy already drained three critical without heavy finish third within pitting interplan etary Guess losing Casualties began booming industrial heartland supplemented yield borehole wellfield surface storage Omatako Swakoppoort Von Bach Dams At seemed logical hindsight lunacy In these places Africa building offering sacrifice namely Apollo ground water hydrologist Christine Colvin All those canals exposed reservoirs putting giant desert saying Get Apollo The three supply million meters water Mm3 cities supply twice Helpless those lukewarm offerings vanish before Windhoek tries respond tionally without triggering panic exodus recession A decade unrolled aggressive management conservation program Last commis sioned cutting wastewater reclamation plant It irrigated parks sports fields cemeteries water It raised prices heavy consumers instituted rationing Such brave moves saved million cubic meters failed appease Namibia exponential growth forced government fight guard defense clutching desperately water within reach Retreat geopolitical risks The acute drought drove Namibia extension Eastern National Water Car north Rundu thick slice closest perennial river That river happened Okavango nearest thing Africa environmental sacred fuels Botswana strategically vital growing million Okavanga Delta based tourist economy worth percent GDP Botswana about sacrifice blood without threatening blood tensions lated between nations until month before final dried clouds burst Deus machina Divine mercy short lived however Drought again Namibia faces front enemy hovering above But anxious hydrologists literally begun break ground liberating revolutionary cosmic against closest Earth tensions Botswana If implemented strat relieve It negate pressure costly building diversions throughout south Africa indeed throughout world It called artificial recharge Just Bushmen buried water filled ostrich future reserve artificial recharge involves burying water through pipes fissures pores beneath Windhoek houses offices Ripeness seasons Namibia withdraws groundwater sunproof aquifer seasons pumps newly stored recycled surface water those cracks pockets previous drawal behind Those seasons stretch months years decade apart But water Namibia withdraws aquifers there would later refill recharge allowing water managers flexibility security freedom whims sacrifice demanding How And people More Okavango Let envelope The mined water aquifer clouds alone could replenish naturally static yield Mm3 After century ground water withdrawals springs dried decad negative count replenish But raindrops percolate slowly force water force exponential rates Why indeed And really makes water wonks ecstatic their subterranean vault pears deeper imagined lowing slosh Mm3 That Passive recharge aquifers widespread centuries Active artificial recharge pioneered California simple primary aquifers beneath floodplains Namibia world first attempt secondary aquifer rivers concealed complex fractured underground landscape I increasingly because climate change No disputes temperatures increasing The overall implication rainfall patterns varies globally scientific consensus based recent extremes drier periods wetter JGW seven consumes times evaporates Imagine extended credit limit seven Interest It withdraws depleting aquifer further later replenishes emptying sooner wisely According groundwater sultant former water manager Ben Merwe every Mm3 water artificially forced underground spares Mm3 evaporation So Windhoek injected Mm3 aquifers would extra Mm3 would evaporation mained In short through evaporation recharge process sacrificial gross Mm3 recharged could transformed Mm3 This water sacrifices become obsolete It means think outside aquifers before Aquifers surface storage accel erate recharge falls More colorfully Once grabbed slippery beast under ground possible before escape Dr Alan Simmonds groundwater expert manager InterConsult Namibia But capture without Dams still doing Perhaps existing At US million proposed three phase artificial recharge cheap African standards But closest equiva security tapping finite source Tsumeb would US million Extending pipeline Okavango River comes US million counting potential troop mobilization international lawyers Is there drawback forcing water underground Yes surface Remote pipelines people cities where please But refuels flushes chemically scrubs pestic sprays garden fertilizes transports hazardous materials directly future drinking supply groundwater contamination become Unlike aquifers polluted impossible flush So begun taking tentative steps restrict developments nerable landscapes above aquifer One potential complication Windhoek ceased springs spring people living working buildings constructed astride ancient wetlands But under solar siege surrounded desert complain about sitting oasis INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS sions dried plants spaces termite mound thrown shifting He tographic memory signs tance markers As survival depended After drive close He recalled large mopane acacia Oth weren Ten minutes passed nothing sound engine The smelled sweat marijuana donkey cheeks Then vehicle erupted Tebere pointed Brigham Young pointed future Mormon HQ similar remark Yes jumping before I could brake This place TUVATJERENI Namibia For winding miles along Omataka Omuramba local seasonal river I churned loaded trucks I followed When turned thick drill Brickhill flatbed strapped pipes sheet metal casing material quickly heated stopped throw precious water against radiator Prinsloo Brickhill bushes depressions their paramour They exact Global Positioning Satellite GPS coordinates Latitude S 31990 Longitude E 91498 A pistol packing geologist Annelise Wierenga tablished those numbers months earlier relied technical surveys sampling database experience By crossing personal knowledge equipment including expensive resolution magnetic surveys geophysical charts remote geologists detect potential bearing structures aquifers Beneath roughly million years entire marshland paleo channels ancient dering river flows Now packed beneath layers blown those pockets water waiting You enough assured The truck cooled enough drive miles Other already there setting weeks We backed place engines A Russet Bushwillow sprin kling leaves confetti heavy equipment When start I asked Brickhill Depends quickly water Water You water before drill water This apparently asking whether before omelets Brickhill indulged ignorance Hell About hundred thousand liters You Stage Prenuptial Rituals ZUTSWA Botswana Tebere water What divine assistance God their ancestors melding above guide their tools target particular By I could barely slight pression desert surface hinted myste rious secrets could below On outskirts imprint Tebere began crude digging tools special order scoops sticks spoons tubes grasses strings And folding shovel They gathered special explained through equally fascinated translator Billy Ocean supposed bring digging turns smoking Then began dance They danced around figure eight pattern clapping while brushing against other chanting singing chant Now would cough tubercular sound dancing Finally Tebere broke picked digging tools The others continued chant singing slightly higher pitch There excitement Anticipa It dance bring water clouds rather dance bring water ground within striking distance TUVATJERENI Namibia Tough technicians dance But their drill Modern Flint Harnessed Fire This sparks focused flame Prinsloo drilling welds casing joint songbirds arrived festive music A tailed drongo first followed sandgrouse waxbills several finch On ground pions solifuges inched closer circling drawn firelight evening smell water during Water powerful scent every becomes permanent magnet attracting every thing insects antelope elephants I trunk water twenty meters Prinsloo You hellova force Yet stage scent water ground Prinsloo hauled tanker truck after filling existing distant borehole emptied tarpaulin lined ditches ponds These interconnected pools mixed biodegradable chemicals circulated through drill CAP churning point where drill ground The drilling fluid mixture known simply become powerful drilling available First 1950s revolu tionized borehole drilling proving technique stages simultaneously In making cools clears bottom cuttings transfers energy lubricate pipes bolts inhibits corrosion makes drill buoyant In clearing fluid pushes ground cuttings keeping suspended In stabilizing controls pressure temperature keeps walls collapsing And measur communicates quickly accurately happening beneath surface through changes color smell consistency content In short drilling pistons shaving cement building Brickhill mixed CAP reservoirs The thick enough cuttings thick slows drilling He simple INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS called Marsh funnel which measure viscosity liter pours For Kalahari seconds ideal I checked stopwatch Thirty Add water Brickhill The overall impression departing harbor After hoisting horizontal tical tightened stabilizers while another threaded wires The loading crane swiveled supply truck John climbed shouting progress Brickhill manned control panel monitoring dials pressure gages torque captain barking orders As several swabbed drilling The hailed eight different countries spoke eleven different languages Upon severing contact driller welder driver mechanic firefighter barber bartender plumber navigator janitor radio operator electrician musician amateur linguist In groggy morning whole operation floating waves glare horizon watching signs feeling vibrations beneath surface searching likely places where plume spray getting ready shout Thar bloooows prepare harpoon Reality check As descended heavy transformed rotary drilling roller tungsten carbide buttons They pivoted screwed drill pulling brake device turned device collar When power swivel cranked tight twenty meter shaft hoisted poised first thrust Kalahari Stage Consummation ZUTSWA Botswana Soft begun scooped thrust directions caught I dodge avoid getting circling opposite Tebere scrape trajectory By custom eldest family start brother nephew relieved As outsider I Each individual would digging while other filled place dance The deeper heavier denser layers Progress slowed dance carried I could distinguish ritual It quite possible Bushmen developed wells their ancestors hundreds thousands years developed taste first following scavenging imitating Africa beasts It documented Bushmen chased fresh vultures carcass moved zones benefiting protein Could likewise thousands years learned chase elephant trunk while learning imitation desert similar fashion No knows certain But erosion method century rrelated arrival growth animal landscape Sip technology Central Kalahari Paul Sheller 1970s appointed Bushman Development Officer3 because rapid spread those boreholes drilled water cattle farms desert outskirts Bore holes lower water table Not inches necessary In sense competition operated several levels Tebere Prinsloo story Tebere thousands neighboring boreholes surrounding lived roamed Prinsloo other drillers Namibia Namibia drillers Botswana South Africa Deeper deeper drilled chasing water table receded before After hours three meters ground surface carving enough The bottom The picked sharp sticks spoons gouged narrow quickening TUVATJERENI Namibia It Prinsloo Drill seconds penetrate distance through D covered Every meter drill churned cuttings every meter scooped shovelful dumped Cuttings varied drilling fluid lifted Aeolian blown thick alluvial sediment calcrete unconsolidated gravel sandstone limestone stone shale dolomite karoo quartzite gneiss perhaps marble diamond bearing kimberlitic When shovelsful dried spoonful trays would Windhoek logging With government could borehole samples precise cross section country geology But there immediate short benefits It shows layer Brickhill Is sample Good I But calcrete sandstone silified glass silicone drilling Grinds tricone drill buttons Wears driller pride That people start swearing shouting cause slows progress What slowed progress swearing though hauled supply The front differential water tanker drilling halted nearly until could repaired bring loads essential Then again drill plunged deeper slapped second winched crane Eleven meters became twenty three Past expected water level depth Thirty meters Thirty At point drilled nearby found moisture enough Thirty Skills attention amplified complex depth Each drill segment added kilograms weight Beyond first meters Brickhill press drill letting weight shaft torque A title oxymoron Sheller You develop Bushman western sense because develop means organizing mobilizing resources mobilizing yourself organizations around resources INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS deeper There violence certain points slight resistance breaking through invisible consolidated layers vibrations consistency helped Brickhill sense difference depths telling there It meter after meter lower anyone expected Seventy meters Eighty This level maximum depth water level eluded going Ninety One Hundred Falling water tables affecting Prinsloo Tebere chase bottom deeper That sinking simply local fluke national challenge global issue driven pumping nomenon decades Water tables dropping under North China Plain under India Punjab Ogallala Aquifer which stretches beneath South Dakota central Texas These places chunk globe breadbasket running Indeed eight percent feeds world billion people grown water replenishing There benefit pumping groundwa strong delays eventual reckoning higher global grain price Despite expressed concerns environmental groups officials there installed meters boreholes That means Namibia managed monitor measure water government munal commercial holes pumping It means drilled wrong place wrong reasons wrong One Ten One Twenty Only meters change color consistency Finally Prinsloo Drilling stops They Stage Conception ZUTSWA Botswana As damper Tebere slowed growing cautious If shallow enough would If might puncture membrane leaking water reach I imagined water Liquid gushed eagerly surface uncorked champagne tured artery That could happen water compressed beneath between cracks fractured fined aquifer referred Not In Kalahari confined unconsolidated porous aquifers water lazed comfortably between grains sands reluctant unless forced For clans basic drilling meant intricate difficult begun Up point worked gravity Tough Guys Do Smile Rig roughnecks manhandle drill segment place battled against We assume gravity ground level because stops solids But gravity continues liquids deeper through pores grains cracks until impermeable layer Even unless layer sealed keeps pulling cubic meter water weighs roughly Against Tebere Prinsloo develop vision through three dimen sions think water asking where would I I Thaleta bundle grassy reeds around handed Tebere Traditionally native plants parts Kalahari But Bushman adapted nology anyone A Bushmen hunter poison arrow heads steel fences carries quivers PVC Like developer rubber suction Once wrapped absorbent traditional grass filter bottom plugged TUVATJERENI Namibia Withdrawing drill reverse rappelling climber cliff dangerous vulnerable stage where costly mistakes usually Men their guard relax forget several dozen steel still dangled could collapse To prevent Prinsloo inserted inner lining casing Like recipe these ingredients segments screwed together preparation moment The recipe hydrologist specifications One meter steel casing standpipe meters plain UPVC millimeter diameter meters perforated centralizers braces stabilize joints where screwed together cubic meters gravel welded They drilled expected meter depth The gravel casing verti filtered perforated segments water while filtering gravel Casings after drilling complete Brickhill It vulnerable If lapses always drill casings ready there Earlier harpoon I ticed slide brace plates around drill chain while screwed The obvious danger occurred Ever something I asked Not touch Brickhill What happens Have recover various methods These parts expensive Reach What process called Brickhill smiled He heard whale analogy Actually called fishing expedition I jinxed asking For later after fixed water truck differential completed drilling installed casing through fault collapsed trapping casing After fishing cursing several angles Prinsloo Brickhill nally recovered piece completed casing withdrew drill capped Ready Stage Childbirth ZUTSWA Botswana At point Tebere moved quickly They turns lying gripping their sucking Rather draughts inhaled swift short sudden bursts It while watching motion I developed loose metaphor around which dispatch structured The sucking could described erotic engendered sweet clean water It primal connection humans native landscape sustained But parent child The focused intensity effort evoked adult lover infant mother breast In either abstracting groundwater surface instance stronger human lungs Given depth weight still considerable energy But little little water Tebere first drink brother X women Pure clear contact nothing Down darkness sunlight dangerous microbial could Tebere smiled smacked Ahhh TUVATJERENI Namibia On average percent boreholes drilled Namibia successful The stillborn That means third yield enough water worthwhile Or means salty filled dissolved solids difficult operate clogged expensive maintain So those abandoned In first North Livestock Development Programme borehole 40410 drilled stone throw north enough It yielded liters meters That would plenty enough water Bushmen Tebere survive Bushmen weren paying The United Nations And boost livestock loyal villages wanted times amount Drill deeper order You water Prinsloo The drill cheap Clients Prinsloo N about US meter through Kalahari crusts That before adding parts geologist contractor casing value added As tungsten carbide drill deeper higher The three boreholes whether often roughly US roughly US And there critical At cubic meter lungs elephant could water depths A could deeper meters could liters percent capacity This meters would require solar diesel At US diesel pumps cheapest install erful suction force So government charge water picking check manded It people likely their heart content No longer Now abstract economic force government devolving ownership local communities It could subsidize groundwater certain point rural areas Besides doing often neglect abuse So turning responsibility maintenance operation people water Not surpris ingly locals loath diesel their pockets scrambling ernment retrofit boreholes pumps US ideally solar pumps US before handing these water points They trusted I carefully watching devolution Water Point Committees WPCs cropped Africa JGW It always seemed right thing terms attaching value conservation incentive water Yet ernment hydrocrats appeared eager their hands official responsibility power influence The resulting transition proved extremely difficult halting confusing sometimes inequitable boreholes remote areas Often caught politics Prinsloo It because someone connected drilling Other places peoples badly water contract I heard similar echelons power Drought pleading certain constituencies impulsive reactive decisions Over decade I ordered hundreds boreholes fragile every would disaster because would grazing overuse water Piet Heyns Namibia Director Resource Management Environmentalists I actually agreed would rible But Statehouse orders something Wind Solar Which power choose depends depth ability resign And resign still without So I drilled It In cases established secure tenure devolution water agement For example tribal authori backed indigenous knowledge their landscape often could smoothly incorpor water their traditional power structure In diverse mixed areas wealthiest landowner sharing borehole cally became leader water others extracted labor share himself recip rocal Water bartered feudal tithes That least locally developed system But around independence resettlement Kalahari transitions crammed throats relocated Herero Bushman minority groups government washed hands responsibility pulled In Gam halfway between Tebere sipwell Prinsloo drilling government officials plained There dissatisfaction amongst people accepted policy because choice Ah democracy Stage Nurturing ZUTSWA Botswana Quenched D began relax Singing dancing ended A group In course ritual Tebere reinforced integrity impressed technique younger generation Throughout wells enabled Bushmen travel where INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS wished remote landscapes constraints persecution pursuit Tebere family remember again again whenever arises They Should tanker tomorrow should Tswana access should Israeli plant never fixed there enough water drink again If there another place Tebere another radius They would there which involve packing Before leaving gathered empty plastic bottles Holding these their mouth sucked mouthfuls dribbled water bottles These along again adapting technology technique Plastic replaced storage hollowed eggshells stolen ostrich stuffed impermeable grass Bushmen these canteens centuries They carried traveled reservoirs where could later technique Western begun imitate large scale See story A Borehole Bank Born Without Tebere guide I would unable The heavy little falls there since eroded tracks TUVATJERENI Namibia What happened after drilled capped borehole strickly speaking Prinsloo problem He Brickhill their simply hired deliver water proud NOLIDEP parents U N which would drilling their annual report brochures Namibian government which would SWAPO party official handover loyalty local village which involved during entire drill Usually drillers pride The water found ample sweet nearby village But there times enough parents discern store newborn Sometimes secretly water Prinsloo Or because asshole We going abuse exhaust landscape cattle sterile through irrigation demand borehole If client nected Again again I heard refrain geohydrologists drillers They excitedly describe Wild West atmosphere surrounding borehole siting drilling fishing complications challenges overcome lions meteor showers tales horror stories They became nerds about latest ussion length resonance GIS imaging whatever They spoke water worthy flame stealthy chess partner They proud their thing tangible wouldn trade anyway better paying pushing papers Yet happens after install subdued The wince They sound mechanic designer presented spoiled teenager They recommendations based tests sustain yield recharge They argue certain boreholes should despite their water yield They might point temporary drought relief boreholes become logical socioeconomic disaster allowed permanently But advice based decades experience ignored right later forgotten short economic political Un boreholes water slowly sinks drillers rehired rehabilitate chasing deeper deeper The issue devolution ership Brickhill If sense communal tribal vidual ownership borehole others using abusing until Any these villages could their exchange borehole rehabilitation themselves Then stick around lasts generation So Measured Tebere quest hours Prinsloo weeks Measured skill resourceful I dueling drillers profound respect Prinsloo Tebere Both proved incredibly inventive materials fungible plastic shaped their needs Brickhill spoke designing borehole local parts harsh African landscape instead Europe tamer Measured output practiced groundwater seduction craft Differences between broke along lines technology rather technique quantity quality Tebere arguably employed oldest method pumping water pockets ground Prinsloo stayed cutting dustry literally figuratively Measured value Well America heroes John Henry there moral difference scale operations Prinsloo Brickhill Wierenga geohydrologist understood water complexity success power finances diagnostic tools decades experience They could quantify water Tebere never could But after weeks months years service strangers forced place place surren their earned water others By trast Tebere alone remained loyal concealed It mained loyal A lowed independence mystery modern economy diesel force mobile drilling could Measured seduce produce metaphor difference between San wells roughneck holes between techniques share passion respect groundwater hiding chaste place It rather difference intimacy mitment The Bushmen initiate mutually sustaining marriage water lifelong fruitful relationship dered death Modern industrial drillers engage fleeting affair where predetermined always hovers sight where yield turned indif ferent parents where parties dering What Of course doing their relationship groundwater might closely resemble Bushman blacks whites viewed disdain contempt INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS Fellows their Activities Alexander Brenner June EAST ASIA Alex received B A History Yale completed Master degree China Studies International Economics Johns Hopkins School Advanced International Studies He prepariing ICWA fellowship China months intensive Mandarin language study Beijing His fellowship focus impact government membership World Trade Organization Chinese citizens institutions regions inside capital Andrew Rice May UGANDA A former staff writer New York Observer reporter Philadelphia Inquirer Washington Bureau Newsday Andrew spending years central Africa watching waiting reporting possibility anticipated African Renaissance might begin administration President Yoweri Museveni Andrew B A Government Georgetown minor Theology after having spent semester Charles University Prague where served intern Velvet magazine later traveled experienced wrote about conflict Balkans Matthew Rudolph January INDIA When toward Cornell Ph D International Relations finished Matthew begin years Phillips Talbot South Asia Fellow looking securitization development Indian economy Matthew Z Wheeler October SOUTHEAST ASIA A former research assistant Rand Corporation Matt spending years looking proposals plans realities regional integration disintegration along Mekong River China Vietnam With B A liberal Sarah Lawrence M A Harvard East Asian studies Blakemore Fellowship Thai language studies Matt examining short conflicts Burma Thaila Laos Cambodia James G Workman January SOUTHERN AFRICA A policy strategist national restoration initiatives Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt Jamie ICWA Donors Fellow looking southern African nations South Africa Botswana Mozambique Zambia maybe Zimbabwe through their utilization conservation fresh water supplies A Yale graduate History spent junior Oxford Jamie journalism fellowship Poynter Institute Media Studies wrote New Republic Washington Business Journal before years Babbitt Since served Senior Advisor World Commission Dams Cape Town South Africa ICWA Letters ISSN published Institute Current World Affairs Inc exempt operating foundation incorporated New York State offices located West Wheelock St Hanover NH 03755 The letters provided charge members ICWA available libraries profes sional researchers subscription Phone E Mail ICWA valley Fax Web Site Executive Director Peter Bird Martin Program Assistant Brent Jacobson Publications Manager Ellen Kozak Institute Current World Af fairs The Crane Rogers Foundation The information contained publication reproduced without writer permission Author Workman James G Title ICWA Letters Sub Saharan Africa ISSN Imprint Institute Current World Affairs Hanover NH Material Type Serial Language English Frequency Monthly Other Regions East Asia South Asia Mideast North Africa Europe Russia The Americas Institute Fellows chosen basis character previous experience promise They young professionals funded spend minimum years carrying designed programs study writing outside United States The Fellows required report their findings experiences field month They write subject formally informally The result unique reporting analysis periodic assessment interna tional events issues