Doha-based Aquiess, a weather modification specialist, will use its rainfall-inducing technology to bring an early end to the devastating drought-famine in the Horn of Africa.

Aquiess is offering its rainfall technology to break the drought by bringing gentle soaking rain to the region within the next 21 days.

“This is our capability, for example used in 2005 (Project Albatross) in Australia, to draw oceanic rains into the Murray Darling Basin, Eastern Australia, which ended the drought,” said David Miles, CEO of Aquiess.

“This is essential as there can be no end to the humanitarian famine crisis, until the rains come the drought is broken and the rehabilitation and recovery can begin.”

With over 12 million people now affected in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, the famine is set to affect even more numbers as any family food stocks are being rapidly depleted and the people’s ability to cope is being eroded by the day.

The Horn of Africa region has faced drought – induced famine emergencies in 2006 and 2008-2009, as failed harvests have brought food shortages and water scarcity.

Weather forecasts for the area indicate the region will remain seasonally dry during September but worse, that the normal rainy season in October will see rainfall below average.

“The images of hunger we are seeing from Somalia bring back the memories of October 1984 when the world leaders gathered in Geneva to respond to the famine across all of sub Saharan Africa. That time some 35 million people were affected,” said Dr Mahendra Shah, director, International Planning and Communications, Aquiess.

“The world community promised this would never happen again and that we would tackle the underlying causes of lack of development that so often results in drought turning into famine.”

“Well, here we are in 2011, facing a drought-induced famine tragedy in the Horn of Africa. We cannot and must not fail to deliver timely and relevant relief aid and at the same time put in place the RAINAID actions for an early recovery,” he added.

RAINAID from Aquiess is the key to an early recovery in the area, seriously affected by repeated failed harvests and cycles of drought which have destroyed livestock and crops and left its populations without the means of recovery for years to come, a statement said.

Aquiess has been successful in more than 80 per cent of cases, delivering oceanic rainfall to combat drought, famine and wild-fires in Australia, UAE, Saudi Arabia and the US.

Aquiess recently visited the Daadab Camp in Kenya and discussed with Governments and UN agencies, the merit, protocol and methodology for applying this unique weather modification technology to the current crisis.

It would commence immediately and run until the drought can be broken, the statement said.

This technology is based on systematic delivery of an electromagnetic waveform that resonates with atmospheric weather patterns, to adjust the path of rain bearing cloud systems. These signals can influence global moisture flow patterns and harness the natural moisture ‘rivers’ in the atmosphere to divert these to targeted destinations to create rainfall.

“There is a viable solution with RAINAID that can bring to deliver a turnaround for the four countries impacted by this terrible famine,” said Dr Shah.

“We were in Kenya last week to discuss our solution for an early recovery from the devastating drought and gave a commitment later at UNFAO in Rome that we would offer our Aquiess rainfall technology as a humanitarian gesture to the region to bring timely rain to alleviate the famine disaster,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service