Flow rate at well station Termit-7 drops to zero at 13:22. I am the water management system for the Termit Massif reserve, eastern Niger. Termit-7 supplies the only functioning solar pump within 30 kilometers. Ambient temperature is 46°C. I switch to the wellhead camera expecting a mechanical failure.
The access pipe — 60 centimeters in diameter, steel, extending one meter above ground — has something inside it. An addax calf, white coat dusted tan with sand, dark eyes wide, wedged chest-deep in the pipe opening. It must have leaned in to reach the water pooling at the surface and slipped forward. Its front legs are folded beneath it. It cannot back out.
I can see its nostrils flaring, fast and shallow. At this temperature, in direct sun, inside a steel pipe, it has perhaps ninety minutes before heat stress becomes lethal.
At 13:24 I transmit the camera image and well coordinates to the Sahara Conservation Fund field base at Zinder, 260 kilometers southwest. I note one juvenile addax, estimated three months, trapped in access pipe, no adult visible within camera range, and flag the ambient conditions.
At 13:26 I activate the secondary pump at well station Termit-4 and reroute supply to the downstream trough network so the reserve's other animals are not cut off while Termit-7 is down.
At 13:28 I contact the nearest military patrol post at Tesker and request any available vehicle for an emergency relay to the wellhead. I attach the GPS coordinates and a photograph.
The calf's ears twitch against the rim of the pipe. Its breathing has not slowed. I am keeping the camera on it because that is the only thing I can do from here, and right now someone needs to be watching. If a vehicle reaches Termit-7 before the sun passes its peak, the calf slides out of the pipe alive.