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DEVELOPMENT-AFRICA: Groundwater: Protecting a Hidden Resource

Moses Magadza

GABORONE, Nov 19 2008 (IPS) - Groundwater – water located beneath the ground in soil or rock formations – is a secure source of water that if properly managed can last for centuries. The challenge is how to locate it and monitor the effects of its use.

“Being a largely invisible resource, groundwater is vulnerable in many places, and sometimes it is polluted from surface activities and lack of sanitation,” says Dr Willi Struckmeier, newly-elected president of the International Association of Hydrogeologists.

“There is need for not just legislation but enforcement of legislation to protect groundwater.” he said

Struckmeier said Africa had done well to bring groundwater high on the political agenda. He was speaking at a two-day workshop in Botswana on the management of groundwater in the Southern African Development Community region.

Over 50 people with varying levels of expertise in groundwater management from SADC and other parts of the world met on Nov. 18 and 19 for discussions revolving around groundwater issues in the sub-region.

In a message to the workshop, SADC Executive Secretary Tomaz Salomão said groundwater remains little appreciated in the region despite being a source of potable water for about 60 percent of the region’s approximately 240 million people.


“[Groundwater is] an important resource that although less understood due to its occurrence underground should be well managed and conserved to ensure it is available in terms of quantity and quality,” Salomão said in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Remmy Makumbe, the director for infrastructure and services at the SADC secretariat.

Salomão said the centrality of water to SADC in terms of addressing the region’s overarching objective was not in question.

“The SADC Protocol on shared watercourses recognises groundwater as an integral part of the integrated water resources management which is our key programme.”

He said in SADC the management of groundwater was being incorporated into river management programmes under the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) programmes, especially the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan.

“Our resolve to meet the Millennium Development Goals as a region is a must and this process today is one of the means to an end in an attempt to achieve these. Our scorecard suggests that we are on track but we need to do more… With the spectre of climate change, SADC is expected to face challenges regarding availability of water resources in future and groundwater will play a critical role as the majority of rural populations rely of groundwater as their potable sources,” he said.

Salomão said there was therefore need for greater understanding of groundwater, its management, use and protection to prepare for challenges ahead in the availability of water.

Expectations are running high at the workshop. It is envisaged that participants will develop a way to ensure that groundwater contributes to poverty-reduction and spur economic development in the region.

Dr Richard Owen, a water expert from the University of Zimbabwe, said he hoped to get an insight into better groundwater management techniques from the workshop.

“One of the most difficult things about groundwater is that it is a hidden resource and so its management is more complex than that of surface water. If you have a surface water body you can see that it is nearly empty and with that sort of information, users such as municipalities, farmers and so on can plan. Not so with groundwater,” Owen said.

Struckmeier reckons SADC has very well-trained hydrologists but admits retaining them, especially for the public sector, is not easy. Many are in the private sector, where they are better paid.

One participant, speaking on condition he was not named, said among the greatest challenges in groundwater management was lack of awareness and difficulties in providing access to it in rural settlements where people need it most.

“We need to create stakeholder awareness amongst policy makers who we believe are catalysts in terms of coming up with a programme that can be put in place to implement the ground water programmes. Lack of resources is also a challenge, especially when it comes to exploitation of groundwater. What is required is therefore a coordinated and focused programme. We need to mobilise resources from public and donor sectors,” he said.

SADC, the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), the University of the Western Cape through UNESCO’s Chair in Hydrogeology and GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit, the German agency for sustainable development) organised the workshop with funding from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development from Germany.

 
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