WMOD00382

• Project Name: Project Skywater
• Title: Project Skywater - Water Augmentation through Cloud Seeding
• Date: 7/1/1989
• Weather Modification - Doc Type: Report

FOREIGN ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS

Reclamation also participates in the transfer of precipitation enhancement technology for
augmenting water supplies of other water-short nations of the world, that are interested in
incorporating this technology into their water resource management programs. This has
included the Canary Islands (Spain), Morocco and Thailand.

Grand Canary Island Rain Augmentation Project - During 1982-83, Reclamation completed
the first year of a 5-year rain stimulation program on Grand Canary Island aimed at providing
part of the solution to an increasingly serious water depletion problem. Reclamation provides
technical guidance, and training for weather modification technology transfer to Spanish
nationals and review of the field operations and analyses work. During the field season,
priority was given to the seeding of warm clouds, which provide about 50 percent of the
Island's precipitation. A scientific evaluation of the cloud seeding results cannot be made
until there has been an opportunity to study more clouds, however, it is believed that sufficient
progress has been made on the rain stimulation project to warrant its being continued to a
satisfactory conclusion.

Morocco Winter Snowpack Augmentation Project - A comprehensive foreign program has
been conducted in Morocco, which has been experiencing a prolonged drought and growing
water resources problems. A weather modification assessment by a team of American
scientists recommended a precipitation enhancement program as an integral part of Morocco's
national water resources development program to help ease the current drought and to help
secure needed additional water resources in the long term.

The Kingdom of Morocco, acting through its Ministry of Transportation, and the United
States, acting through its Agency for International Development, signed a Project Grant
Agreement in April 1984 for the implementation of a 5-year scientifically-based demonstration
program of winter precipitation augmentation in the central High Atlas Mountains in Morocco,
with the objective of providing additional water from runoff for hydroelectric power
generation, irrigation and domestic and industrial use. Reclamation, working through the U.S.
Agency for International Development, provided the transfer of technology, technical
assistance, special analyses, scientific equipment and training to the National Meteorological
Organization of the Govenunent of Morocco in order to assist that organization in the
development of an ability to design, plan, implement, monitor and evaluate scientifically-based
weather modification programs as an integral part of the overall management of water
resources in Morocco.

Kingdom of Thailand Applied Atmospheric Resources Research Program - At the request
of the Royal Thai Govenunent, an interdisciplinary team of four scientists from the United
States visited Thailand in September 1986, to conduct a weather modification assessment.
The assessment report evaluated the potential role of scientifically-based weather modification
in water resources management in the Kingdom of Thailand and. reconunended a
comprehensive program of scientific, socioeconomic and environmental studies to quantify the
increases in water supplies that could be achieved and its economic value.

8