Towards a greener Sahara - Part 2

The hospital gates are open for a day.

The loud speaker on the small mosque on the far side of the wadi crackles into life at 4:30 am, awakening the faithful and calling them to prayer at dawn. It is the coolest time of day but not yet the cold season so the temperature is a respectable 15C. There is a slight chill in the air but  we are sleeping outside in our yard. Sometimes I say a short silent prayer from my bed, sometimes not, either way I am soon asleep again until 6am. I don’t hear it every day but a few nights ago I did and shortly afterwards there was the sound of the gates opening in the neighbours yard and a couple of petrol engines coughed into life. They sat there running for 10 minutes or more, to make sure the engine was warm, and then I heard the cabin doors  of the pick ups slamming shut, others passengers were no doubt  climbing on the back that is already piled high with luggage and with a cry they were off down the rocky hillside  on their adventure- to the gold fields. 

The Teda, it seems to me, are never happier than when they are travelling. I guess that in the past that the men spent time away from their villages in the mountains riding on camel trains, but now camels are rare and are used as a source of meat rather than transport. They have been replaced by Toyota pickips, be they the lighter slightly more economical Hi-Lux pickups or the more rugged and thirsty Land Cruisers preferred by the military and those that can afford them.

Energy efficiency label in Bardai.
Verdict poor. 

So what happened to the motorbikes that are so comparatively cheap to buy and economical to run? A fuel efficiency of  giving  80-100 mpg. There are two in Bardai and they are rarely seen in use. In the Tibesti the distances between towns are such that you need to travel with all your fuel and water plus sleeping equipment, and you wouldn’t ever travel alone.  Even driving around town for short trips would be difficult due to all the loose sand.  So unlike Ndjamena and the south of the country, where motorbikes outnumber cars 10:1, and saloon cars and taxis similarly outnumber SUV’s, in Bardai a small means of transport is a 4X4 petrol powered pickup giving about 26 mpg.

At the Drive Thru Pharmacy!

The young Teda men drive them around all the time, even f!or short trips of a kilometre or so around the town. Fuel economy is not a consideration with a price of 40p a litre from Libya as opposed to 80p in Ndjamena. Engines are left running not only to warm up (Is that really needed) but also whilst trying to fit in a quick consultation at the hospital and then drive straight on the 50 meters to the pharmacy to get the drugs. Actually as the hospital has got busier we have limited that by trying to keep the gates locked so as to diminish the risk of accident in what should be a pedestrian zone.

If the Teda lived in London perhaps some criticism of their choice of expensive 4X4, or indeed any personal vehicle could be justified. The effects of CO2 and other pollutants are significant both for the health of the planet and its human population. But what other choice could be practical for this isolated mountain dwelling people? Many of them live in homes that cost much less than their vehicles with no sanitation or running water. The long distances on sand and mountains, on unmade roads, means that it is either a camel train or 4X4. I know which I would choose. At least off road vehicles are used off road here, unlike in the UK where many are only off road when parked on the pavement of a congested city.

Gold mining equipment, sand sifters, for sale in Bardai

The sheer numbers of vehicles up here is amazing, where  did all the money come from. The cheapest new  pick ups  coming from Libya are £24 000 and another £8000 for Chadian import taxes ( the latter rarely paid in this remote province). In a country where nurses and teachers are paid $300 a month this is a colossal sum. Many of the men struck it rich with the early part of the gold rush when large nuggets were being readily found in the superficial sands using metal detectors. A vehicle cost about 500g of gold. It was all  a bit of a lottery you might find some  large nuggets, you might find nothing or you might be really unlucky and  find an antipersonnel mine. However prospecting for nuggets finds just a small  a fraction of the available gold, now the men are digging large quantities of auriferous sand and rocks and using air blowers they can sift it and get about half of the available gold. It is less efficient than traditional water washing but water is in short supply and there isn’t even enough for basic hygiene; diarrhoeal illness, typhoid  and viral  hepatitis have been frequent problems.

 Last week I heard of 2 new tragedies, one immediate and one long term. The first was of a mine collapse that killed 30 people up towards the Libyan frontier. Unsupported mine workings in rich seams of gold bearing dirt are dangerous. I saw a photo of a similar accident from September, a large group of men lined up around a large sunken linear crater in which another 30 men had lost their lives, there were no survivors.

The second and  long term problem is that of using mercury, a very dense liquid metal,  to improve the yield.  Reportedly using this technique  80g ($3500) of tiny flecks of gold can be found in a sack of 50KG of dirt. The process is simple using a small amount of water to make a suspension of the dirt mercury is added and all the gold that comes into contact with the mercury dissolves in it making an amalgam. The mercury is then gently heated  and it boils away leaving  grains of pure gold. The problem is that mercury which can be inhaled is toxic in many ways including neurological and psychiatric syndromes. In other gold mining sites  around the world mercury poisoning is a major problem as environmental contamination of fields and water supplies around villages leads to birth defects, mental retardation in the next generation. At least up in the remote wilderness only working men are found and so the risks are confined to them.

Gold, if it is well managed, is a potential blessing for the economy of the Tibesti. It could bring about major beneficial changes for the local and incoming populations and since 2012 there are some big changes in population and markets. The immediate  problems associated with infectious disease, accidents and insecurity are all to some extent acknowledged but so far the long term issues arising from environmental pollution, be that from vehicles or mercury, are not even on the radar. 

In a cloud of dust, showing off to the girls using the new 'camel'