Alain Gachet

Alain Claude Christian Gachet is a French physicist specialized in geology, born in the French colony of Madagascar in 1951. He is the inventor of an algorithm used in a process known as WATEX that can detect the presence of deep groundwater. He is a natural resources entrepreneur and CEO of RTI Exploration.

Biography

Early years and education The son of a forestry ranger, Alain Gachet grew up in an isolated region of northern Madagascar. His father was responsible for recording the inventory of Madagascar's botanical species diversity, the discoveries of which he shared with his son after his explorations of the island. His father was also active in the protection of the environment of the Madagascar mangroves. Alain Gachet has said that his childhood experiences in Madagascar instilled in him a love and respect for nature.

When he reached the age of 14, seven years after the independence of Madagascar, he moved to the capital Tananarive, where his father was transferred. After a discovery and reading of the Bible, he developed a passion for biblical history and its related archeology which led him to seek, in 1966, a summer residency in Israel, at the kibbutz of Evron, in Galilee. During his stay, he had the opportunity to do an internship in geology and hydrogeology with experts from the University of Tel Aviv, in the Sinai desert.

In 1969, his family settled in mainland France. After French post-secondary Preparatory Classes, he was accepted into the Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines de Nancy from which he graduated in 1975. and was assigned to the research and development program in the department responsible for the processing and interpretation of seismic data. He then participated in the oil exploration of the North Sea. He made his mark by inventing a method to identify new gas fields. For this, he earned the Elf Innovation Award.

He then embarked on gold exploration in the rainforest of the Republic of Congo, then in Mali. Alain Gachet and the drilling team traveled across the deserted region, comparing the satellite images and visual cues present in the field. RTI developed maps using WATEX technology to identify target areas to drill for deep groundwater. In 2004, with the help of UNHCR, around 250,000 refugees in the Ouaddaï Region in Chad were provided water from this project and, in 2005 and 2006, with contributions from USGS and the U.S. Department of State, this project contributed to the survival of hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons camps in Darfur in Sudan. The success of the operation attracted the attention of Bill Woods, White House cartographer at the time, who called upon Alain Gachet in June 2005.

Additional projects and assignments RTI participated in the archaeological research of the Hebrew Mission in Jerusalem, on the supposed tomb of King Herod the Great. The Lotikipi Basin Aquifer contains 200 billion cubic meters of fresh water and covers an area of 4,164 km2. The aquifer is nine times the size of any other aquifer in Kenya and has the potential to supply the population with enough fresh water to last 70 years or indefinitely if properly managed. The acquifer is about the size of Rhode Island and replenishes at a rate of 1.2 billion cubic meters a year. Gachet's company, RTI established a new basis for the mapping of Kenya.

Awards and honors In January 2015, upon the recommendation of Ségolène Royal, the French Minister of Ecology at that time, Alain Gachet is awarded by Yves Coppens, the rank of Chevaliers of the French Legion of Honor.

Only aquifers that are renewable can reasonably be exploited because fossil water must be preserved for future generations, according to Gachet. However, they represent together, by far, the largest freshwater deposit on the planet. There is more fresh water hidden underground than visible on the lakes, rivers and glaciers. Up to thirty times more according to NASA estimations.

Gachet stated in article published in The Independent that "over a billion people have no easy access to drinking water and that 1.8 million children die each year from diseases linked to drinking bad water". He added that "in another half century, there will be 5.5 billion - two thirds of the population - living in a state of severe water-shortage." The Sudan Darfur campaign conducted between 2005 and 2008 on 1,700 wells showed a Watex success rate of 98%.

Obstacles The cost of deep drilling is thirty times greater than that of a conventional well, constituting up to $200,000 to equipe a well at 300 meters (compared to just $6,000 for a conventional well).