Young girls getting fresh water in the community hand water pump in rural Africa.Credit: Ivanbruno/Alamy Stock Photo
Africa’s population of more than 1 billion is predicted to double by 2050. At the same time, the continent is expected to become drier due to the climate crisis.
Efficient groundwater management in Africa could help mitigate the extreme effects of droughts and floods, a study published in Environmental Research Letters shows.
This could be done through increased access to boreholes and managed recharge of water aquifers, suggests the research team from the Center for Water Resources Research, University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and the University of Texas at Austin, United States.
Hydrologist, Bridget Scanlon, the study’s co-author, says African regions seasonal droughts and floods which are likely to become more extreme due to the climate crisis. “Managing climate change extremes and water resources are critical issues for Africa’s water security,” she says.
Groundwater is the water found beneath the Earth’s surface in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand, and rock. The water moves slowly, over thousands of years, through geological formations and is stored in layers of water-bearing rocks known as aquifers. “Groundwater is everywhere in Africa, but we don't know much about its dynamics,” Scanlon said. “So, we need to monitor how the water levels change during wet and dry periods in the aquifers and understand how the system works.”
Climate change adaptation remains a critical issue for the continent. African countries have made little progress towards national water security, with no country having attained an ‘effective’ stage of water security, leaving them water insecure.
Many countries in Africa have abundant groundwater reserves, sufficient to survive at least five years of drought, a study by WaterAid and the British Geological Survey shows. The study, released at the ninth edition of the World Water Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, recommends investing in services to extract the water and distribute it to those who need it most, especially communities in water-stressed areas, to mitigate water scarcity and the impacts of climate change.
The researchers also noted that groundwater remains neglected and underutilized even in countries where it’s sufficient to provide enough water for more than 50 years, such as in Ethiopia, Mali, Madagascar, Niger and Nigeria.
Designing robust water-management plans
The main challenges facing groundwater resources in Africa are urbanization, industrial development, mining activities and agriculture, including the over-use of water for irrigation, a study published in the Hydrogeology Journal highlights. The researchers observe that Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing water scarcity due to poor infrastructure, not a scarcity of water resources.
One third of Africa’s groundwater is found in fractures and weathered zones in complex geological formations, making it difficult to understand where the groundwater is and how it moves, say researchers. “This, in turn, presents a serious challenge to sustainable groundwater management and development,” the report states. The researchers called for robust groundwater monitoring systems to give a clearer understanding of “the role of groundwater storage and groundwater discharges in sustaining aquatic ecosystems, groundwater assessments for understanding the interactions between various aquifers and assessing the impact of increased pumping from various aquifer systems on the sustainability of groundwater abstraction”.
Lucien Damiba, a water security specialist in Burkina Faso, encourages African governments to design robust programmes and management plans for groundwater, and to mobilize resources to extract groundwater and meet the needs of millions of Africans. The country has made good progress on water in the past 20 years.
Damiba notes that communities should be educated about groundwater and trained on effective water usage. “Communities need to understand the water cycle – learn how to collect their own data, analyze it, and understand the behavior of groundwater. This will help communities make good decisions and protect groundwater,” he says.
