"Massive Mongolian Mine Endangers Nomads’ Water, Way of Life"

"KHANBOGD, Mongolia -- Ichinkhorloo Buya scooped fresh water into the camels’ trough and waited for them to return. The whooshing water always beckoned the animals, with their sharp sense of hearing, home.

But this time, they were nowhere to be found. Her children raced off across the bumpy moonscape of the Gobi Desert on motorbikes in a frantic search. They eventually found the camels huddled around an old rusty well. There was no reason the camels should congregate there.

But they heard something the men didn’t – an underground flow of fresh, cold water."

Rachael Bale reports for the Center for Investigative Reporting September 30, 2014.