On the morning of December 12, local time, the officers and men of the third batch of Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to Darfur, Sudan successfully drilled a drinking water well in their own barracks. According to preliminary test, the water in the well completely meets the drinking water standard.

　　The Darfur area in Sudan belongs to granite geology. It is one of the extreme water shortage areas in the world. The difficulty in drinking water is an important reason for restricting the living standard of local residents and it has also been the biggest difficulty of the UN peacekeeping troops since their deployment.

　　To guarantee the daily life, the peacekeepers have to fetch water from distant places. But local security situation is grave and the incidents of attacking UN water-fetching personnel happen now and then.

　　At the request of the African Union – United Nations Mission in Darfur, the well-drilling element of the third batch of the Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to Darfur, Sudan drilled two wells in the super cantonment of the UN peacekeeping troops in succession, effectively easing the pressure in drinking water support.

　　To raise the self support capability under the condition of deteriorating security situation, the third batch of the Chinese peacekeeping engineer detachment to Darfur finally found a relatively ideal well location within the cantonment of only 3.7 square kilometers after more than two months’ meticulous exploration.

　　After more than 20 days of drilling operation, the detachment finally drilled a clean water well and thoroughly tackled the drinking water shortage problem of the UN peacekeeping troops.

　　By Xiao Dan and Wang Huifu