Climate change has been named one of the causes of the Darfur conflict, but could finding solutions to the problems triggered by global warming offer a path to reconciliation and lasting peace? That's a question asked by The Christian Science Monitor.

The Darfur conflict has often been described as a clash between Arab and black African Sudanese. Increasingly, media reports highlight the fact that the Arab part of the population is mainly nomadic while their black African counterparts are sedentary farmers. Decades of drought have only worsened their "centuries-long competition" for natural resources such as land and water.

No wonder there is a competition for water between the two groups when rainfall has dropped nearly 40 percent over the past five decades, according to Chadian and Sudanese officials cited by the Monitor. As a result, Arab nomads searching for water have to take their livestock further south, to land mainly occupied by the farmers.

U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon agrees that climate change has played a role in Sudan's problems. "The Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change," he said in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.

But instead of worsening the conflict, the water issue could become a reason for reconciliation, many aid groups say.

"Is (water) the only cause of the problem? Obviously, everyone knows it's a very complex conflict," says Caroline Saint-Mleux, head of Care International's office in Iriba, in eastern Chad, where Care manages two refugee camps. "But at the same time, you can use (water) to bring the communities back together... You have to have (the warring parties) talk about a common need, and after that you might have them talk about something else that would start giving other solutions to the conflict."

The recent discovery of an underground lake in Darfur offers not only the hope of an immediate solution to water shortages but also a possible means of ending the conflict.

But many believe the lake could bring more woes to Darfur. "Like all resources water can be a blessing or a curse. If the government acts true to form and tries to create some sort of oasis in the desert and control who settles there, that would simply be an extension of the crisis, not a solution," the New York Times quotes Alex de Waal, co-author of "Darfur: Short History of a Long War", as saying.

In any case, according to water experts cited by the Christian Science Monitor, the bore wells only "delay the inevitable fact - that desertification will eventually dry out the land, and push people and their animals further and further south".

Water may be a scarce resource in the region, but sunny days are certainly not. That's why 6,000 portable solar cookers are proving such a success in the Iridimi refugee camp just across the Sudanese border in eastern Chad, The Christian Science Monitor reports. The initiative is part of a pilot project run by Dutch aid group SVAAKO, and there are plans to distribute thousands more stoves in neighbouring camps.

The stoves can potentially save a tonne of wood per year, according to Jewish World Watch (JWW), a Californian non-profit coalition of synagogues, one of the project's sponsors. This saves women a trip to collect fire wood outside camps, which can be a dangerous business as they are vulnerable to rape and violence. As the stoves are made on-site, the project also provides vital income for refugees.

The solar cookers have been tried in the U.S. by the Christian Monitor staff. Judging by the four hours it took to cook a cup of rice on a warm, sunny day in Boston, these devices won't have much success in the U.S.

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