VIA SATELLITE, the doctor manually controls a robot which sends signals to another robot hundreds of kilometers away which is actually performing a surgical operation. The surgical robots are connected by a maze of fiber-optic lines, the sensitive space agency-developed technology capable of drastically changing the lives of people living in areas where they would otherwise have no access to medical care.

If you’re beginning to think these are the opening lines of a sci-fi novel, think again. This could in fact be the level of Egypt’s medical care over the coming years now that the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Egyptian government last month to explore uses of space technology in Egypt.

The main focus of the agreement is currently Earth observation to promote sustainable growth; in past years Canada has worked extensively with various satellite applications to connect its far-flung population of 32 million people spread out over 10 million square kilometers. As the MOU is an open agreement, however, there are virtually no limits on the possibilities.

“[The MOU] is a framework agreement that allows us to explore a range of activities for various ministries and the private sector,” explains Paul Engel, director of Communications and Public Affairs for the CSA. “CSA has been active in Africa since the 1980s. We’ve done everything from prospecting for minerals to prospecting for water — even tracking malaria outbreaks. These projects were all initiated in discussions with the countries involved. We asked them what their needs are and what we can do for them.”

On a recent visit to Egypt, Engel met with a number of potential private-sector partners as well as different departments and ministries to find out what their needs are in terms of space.

“So far it’s clear that the main concern is water management,” says Denis Auger, manager of Earth Observation Applications Development Program. “And it just so happens that our technology and expertise, particularly the radar technology, is particularly well suited to address many issues that relate to water management.”

Associated Press Viewed as distinctly Egyptian here at home, the Nile actually runs through 10 nations.

Auger points out that while some of these applications are still in the experimental stages, many others will simply be continuations of projects already established in other parts of the globe.

“From space you can monitor day and night — even through cloud cover. Monitoring oil spills, for example, on the Suez Canal. There are a lot of boats going through. Radar can detect if any of them are dumping pollution, so it’s a very powerful tool for detection and enforcement,” he offers as an example of an existing program that could be extended to Egypt.

“Canada already uses it quite aggressively on our coastal areas, watching ships that are navigating our waterways,” Engel explains. “On weekends and at night some people think no one’s looking so they can get rid of their waste instead of paying $7,000 or $8,000 in port to have it pumped and properly cleaned. But the satellite picks it up because it makes a completely different signature on the water, so then the authorities can intercept [violators] and charge them.”

“This same technology has been used to great effect against illegal fishing in the Indian Ocean as well,” Auger adds. “It’s made a great reduction in the number of boats involved; even catching one or two boats is a powerful deterrent on those who would do these things.”

These are just quick examples, Engel says, projects that would be easily enacted with immediate results. But the main goal of the CSA’s involvement in Egypt is to help promote sustainable development.

“Around one million children born a year, that means 800,000 people entering the workforce per year,” Engel estimates. And with the population set to top the 92 million mark in the next decade, according to Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, “That means you need a huge growth in your infrastructure and in your cities. You need new developments that don’t encroach on things like agricultural lands which are necessary to sustain your communities. So you’re looking for areas that can easily be expanded with existing infrastructure by extending roads and telecommunications; from space you can get a very good view of where the more likely locations are.”

In response to a challenge from the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002, the European Space Agency initiated what they call the TIGER program. The CSA quickly joined as an active partner in the venture, whose stated goal is to improve water-resource management throughout Africa. Several of the projects that came from this program relate to problems here in Egypt.

One project currently underway in Ghana is exploring the use of satellites to find underground aquifers. Mapping underground water reservoirs would drastically reduce the number of unsuccessful well drillings and give managers and users a more accurate account of the extent of the resource.

The technology’s uses are just as applicable to managing existing water resources as it is in finding new ones. “Satellite imagery is extremely precise,” Engel offers as perhaps the main advantage of using images from space rather than a more Earth-bound approach. “Looking at rivers and their tributaries from space, you have a different vantage point, a different window to look at things than you would on the ground. We can map patterns with things like sediment, for example, which may be moving and blocking certain tributaries, which restricts resources as well as potentially causing flooding. That sort of thing can be seen much more easily from space, rather than simply waiting for it to happen and then dealing with the effects of it.”

Development alongside rivers and oil and gas exploration can have a huge environmental impact which can also be monitored from space, Auger points out. “Water quality can be measured through means such as soil erosion, and the presence of sediment. From space you can measure up to millimeters of subsidence in the soil. When you pump oil or gas for instance, the soil subsides.” Pumping too fast increases the speed of the subsidence leading to mechanical breakdowns and expensive equipment failures. “So for the oil and gas industry it’s very important to know how to regulate pumping speeds.”

Over the course of their meetings in Egypt, the team received nearly as many ideas as they offered. “We’ve heard a whole host of different issues — land mine detection was one,” Engel says. “At another one of our meetings we discussed the possibilities of using satellites to find archaeological sites. It’s really to meet the needs of various Egyptian ministries and industries.”

While many of these ideas and proposals have to be studied more closely, the use of satellites to expand the use of information technology (IT) is already underway.

“In Canada we’re doing a lot of work with satellites with internet and videoconferencing classes,” Engel says, explaining that Canada has the same problem Egypt does of getting qualified teachers out to the more rural and remote areas.

“We had a meeting with the Deputy Minister of Education, and we were really impressed with the speed at which they’ve been integrating IT across the country — especially in the field of education. I was astounded to find out that they’ve trained 58,000 teachers over the summer months to use IT in the classroom. Tele-education is an area the Egyptian government really wants to explore. There are already 28 centers around the country where they’re training people to use IT in terms of education.”

The difficulties of getting qualified personnel out to remote areas applies to doctors as well as teachers. “Canada has done a lot in the field of tele-health,” Engel announces. “We’ve been monitoring blood pressure and heart rates online for quite some time now, we’re even doing glaucoma exams over the internet.”

The range of applications of IT in bringing medical services to rural areas is only just beginning to be realized, and the remote surgery described earlier is already being put to use. “We have a doctor in Hamilton, Ontario who’s doing tele-surgery,” Engel says. “CSA has taken the robotics that we’ve created for the space station and miniaturized them. We’ve now created surgical robots that can be used either in an operating room or remotely. And we’ve taken it a step further and performed a surgery via satellite from Ontario down to Florida in an underwater habitat that we share with NASA. There’s a lot of potential.”

As for the success of CSA’s joint ventures with Egypt, Auger seems equally confident. “The need is there and so is the capacity.” And most importantly for all of the parties involved, “The desire is there as well.”

View

Throughout most of the world, Egypt included, there is a tendency to view the Nile as an Egyptian river. We tend to forget that the world’s longest river runs a 6,700-kilometer course through ten countries.

Rapid development and high population growth have raised pressure on the resource to unprecedented levels and forced conservation issues across international borders. In 1999 the countries who share the river joined together to form the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). The purpose of the NBI is, in their own words, “To achieve sustainable socio-economic development through the equitable utilization of, and benefit from, the common Nile Basin water resources.” One of their major obstacles was understanding the scope of both the resource and the problems it faces. Because of the immense size of the Nile Basin and the difficulties accessing parts of it, satellite mapping was decided to be the best option.

Two years ago the NBI hired a Canadian company, Hatfield Consultants which had recently completed a similar project along the Mekong River in Southeast Asia in cooperation with the Canadian Space Agency. They created the Nile River Awareness Kit, a CD-ROM designed as a training tool and a reference for resource users and policy makers alike throughout the basin.

Erin Johnston, a Governance Specialist with Hatfield Consultants, has worked on the program from the beginning. “Originally we were just going to focus on Earth observation, but it became a much larger,” she says. “After we were contacted we did participatory meetings throughout the basin on the local, national and international levels. We asked people what kind of issues they were facing — how was the land changing? And if we could provide them with the info they needed what would it be and what would it look like?”

Based on their initial conversations, Hatfield Consultants developed a first draft. “It took several versions to test and perfect it,” Johnston tells us, explaining that the final version was only just completed last month.

The finished product contains more than six hundred pages of information and over one hundred detailed maps.

Far from simply being a compilation of maps and satellite images, the kit gathered data on issues ranging from agriculture to desertification. “The idea is to present as much info as possible so they can make more informed decisions about the basin.

“I like to think that this tool and this project have helped promote cooperation among countries in the basin,” she says, noting that several of the countries have traditionally poor relations. “Just the fact that everybody was sitting down together was remarked on several times. It started as just an environmental project but I really think it’s gotten much larger.”

Denis Auger, Manager of Earth Observation Applications Development Program with the Canadian Space Agency, which compiled much of the data for the project echoes her thoughts, “When you look from space you are looking at a much larger area. If you are on the ground you are only seeing a few meters around you.” et