The returning refugees have chosen to live at hundreds of sites over a huge, inaccessible area of desert and desert border. Most of these areas are waterless, roadless and lack industry and commerce to provide employment to returned refugees. The livestock herds the Tuaregs formerly owned have been decimated by drought and years of conflict. The economic and environmental viability of the Tuaregs resuming their former lifestyle of nomadic herding is questionable.
Agriculture is only feasible in the few small areas with access to irrigation.
The RI team talked to hundreds of former refugees at more than twenty locations scattered over a crescent of land stretching five hundred miles along the border of the Sahara. The problem of insufficient water at many sites requires urgent attention. Many sites in other locations also lack water, or have insufficient water. Some refugees must walk hours to the nearest well or waterhole. Even if adequate water for human consumption exists, the supply is often inadequate for agriculture or the Tuaregs' herds of goats.