Over the last few weeks a team of experts has been working in a remote part of western Zambia, giving local villages access to the most vital commodity on earth: water. But their expertise is not in geophysics and hydrology. They credit their success to an altogether more unusual talent: an ability to detect the presence of water using the ancient art of dowsing.
David Dixon and his colleagues at the UK-based charity Village Water (www.villagewater.org) have been making the trip to Zambia for five years, paying all their own costs to dowse for water for villages in the arid land near to the border with Angola. Using a variety of methods, including the age-old technique of dowsing rods, the team locates underground streams, and - if they sense the flow of water is high enough - telling the villagers precisely where to install a pump.
The team claims its work has brought water to dozens of communities and more than 10,000 villagers. It's a success story that delights the locals - but leaves many scientists cold. For how on earth can dowsing work?
Dowsers like Dixon and his colleagues believe they are tapping into the same mysterious effect exploited by miners, surveyors and prospectors for millennia. According to some sources, the first reference to dowsing can be found in 8,000-year-old cave paintings in Algeria. By the 16th century, dowsing was routinely used by prospectors in Europe searching for new ore resources.
Yet even at the time there was scepticism about its value, with the renowned German mineralogist Georg Agricola arguing that someone "prudent and skilled in natural signs" should have no need of "an enchanted twig".
Even sceptics accept that dowsers can find water; the real question is whether they succeed as a result of dowsing - or despite it.
One common explanation is that underground water is so ubiquitous that there's a high chance of finding it anywhere. Hydrologists point out that even in apparently arid areas like Zambia, groundwater is often relatively plentiful. Yet dowsers stress they do not simply locate water: they can also estimate likely flow-rates, and even water quality.
So what is the truth about dowsing? Over the years numerous studies have tried to get to the bottom of the dowsing phenomenon, often with controversial results. In the early 1970s, the UK Electricity Research Council (ERC) carried out tests in which dowsers were challenged to find cables and other equipment buried in the ground. The results revealed that the dowsers succeeded at a rate higher than would have been expected if they had merely guessed. To find out more, the experimenters then repeated the tests, but this time with some ERC technical experts who were asked to see if they could spot any clues as to where the hidden objects might be. Remarkably, they too achieved an impressive hit rate - and actually outperformed the dowsers.
It's a result in line with the view of sceptics since Agricola: that the success of water dowsing stems from the sheer ubiquity of groundwater - plus a keen eye for possible telltales, such as the presence of vegetation and the lie of the land. But according to some, a series of studies funded by the German federal government refutes this explanation.
The tests, which began in 1987, put more than 300 dowsers through their paces, and appeared to show that their success rate was well above chance expectation. To find out if this was simply the result of dowsers picking up on environmental clues, the team devised a second set of experiments, which took place inside a two-storey barn north of Munich.
On the ground floor the team installed a flexible pipe system through which water flowed - and whose position could be randomly altered. On the upper floor, the dowsers walked along a line and were asked to declare where they believed the pipe to be. To minimise the risk of cheating, the experiment was "double blinded", with neither the dowsers nor the experimenters knowing the whereabouts of the pipe.
This second experiment ran for two years, and involved more than 40 dowsers. And according to the experimenters, the results showed that some dowsers really are able to sense the hidden presence of running water. In their final report, the team reported that six participants showed "an extraordinarily high rate of success, which can scarcely if at all be explained as due to chance".
Not everyone was convinced, however. Sceptics pointed out that most of the dowsers performed badly, and claimed that even those who occasionally succeeded were very inconsistent.
They also accused the experimenters of hand-picking the best results from the handful of successful dowsers, thus invalidating any statistical analysis.
To this day, the results of the "Munich Experiment" remain bitterly controversial. Perhaps the fairest interpretation is that it confirms the long-standing view that dowsers possess a genuine knack of detecting water - but it's the result of their skill at picking up on subtle environmental clues to its presence.
If environmental clues aren't the explanation, then some other effect must be at work. Some scientists have suggested that the dowsers are sensitive to some kind of magnetic disturbance triggered by flowing water. Others have argued for the existence of a wholly new force of nature, dubbed the "D-force", which draws dowsers to their target.
Whatever the truth, the controversy over the scientific basis of dowsing looks set to continue. It must all seem hopelessly academic to the villagers of Zambia.
For them fresh water is far more important than watertight explanations.
Robert Matthews is Visiting Reader in Science at Aston University, Birmingham, England
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Players Selected for La Liga Trials
U18 Age Group
Name: Ahmed Salam (Malaga)
Position: Right Wing
Nationality: Jordanian
Name: Yahia Iraqi (Malaga)
Position: Left Wing
Nationality: Morocco
Name: Mohammed Bouherrafa (Almeria)
Position: Centre-Midfield
Nationality: French
Name: Mohammed Rajeh (Cadiz)
Position: Striker
Nationality: Jordanian
U16 Age Group
Name: Mehdi Elkhamlichi (Malaga)
Position: Lead Striker
Nationality: Morocco
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The%20specs
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Innotech Profile
Date started: 2013
Founder/CEO: Othman Al Mandhari
Based: Muscat, Oman
Sector: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing technologies
Size: 15 full-time employees
Stage: Seed stage and seeking Series A round of financing
Investors: Oman Technology Fund from 2017 to 2019, exited through an agreement with a new investor to secure new funding that it under negotiation right now.
Results
5pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m; Winner: Faiza, Sandro Paiva (jockey), Ali Rashid Al Raihe (trainer).
5.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh90,000 1,400m; Winner: Greeley, Connor Beasley, Helal Al Alawi.
6pm: Emirates Fillies Classic Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 1,600m; Winner: Marzaga, Jim Crowley, Ana Mendez.
6.30pm: Emirates Colts Classic Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 1,600m; Winner: Jawaal, Jim Crowley, Majed Al Jahouri.
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 1,600m; Winner: AF Ashras, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel.
7.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 2,200m; Winner: Somoud, Richard Mullen, Ahmed Al Mehairbi.
