Africa has groundwater reserves to cope with five years of drought

Dakar, 21 Mar Most African nations around the world have sufficient groundwater reserves to endure at the very least five several years of drought (some even far more than 50 years), according to a analyze published right now in Dakar at the Planet Water Forum by the NGO WaterAid and the British Geological Survey (BGS).
“There are large water reserves just beneath people’s feet, several of which are replenished every 12 months by rainfall and other surface waters, but they can’t access them due to the fact providers are chronically underfunded,” WaterAid’s United kingdom Government Director Tim Wainwright explained in a assertion.
“Harnessing groundwater would assure millions of folks obtain to secure and cleanse drinking water, no matter what the local weather crisis retains for them,” Wainwright added.
According to the exploration of both of those companies, gathered in the report “Groundwater: The World’s Overlooked Protection From Local weather Change”, most nations around the world in Africa have plenty of groundwater for people today not only to endure, but to prosper.
It also assures that all international locations in sub-Saharan Africa could supply 130 litres of ingesting water for each capita for every day (which would be extra than enough for ingesting, cooking and washing) from groundwater without utilizing a lot more than 25% of the normal lengthy-phrase reserve.
“Groundwater is nature’s h2o reserve and a important useful resource for encouraging the world adapt to climate adjust,” claimed BGS head of groundwater resilience, Alan MacDonald.
But, “to unlock the excellent probable of groundwater, we have to have the suitable investment decision in know-how to map groundwater, drill sustainable wells, and locate means to maintain and manage drinking water methods and companies,” he explained.
The report also explains that, while groundwater reserves are underutilized in sub-Saharan Africa, there are other locations of the world, primarily in South Asia, in which overexploitation is rife.
It also warns that groundwater is susceptible to air pollution by “excess fertilizers and pesticides that arrive from intensive agriculture and can leak into aquifers” and stresses that “insufficient regulation of business can direct to a cocktail of toxic chemical compounds that penetrate the soil”.
The UN Annual Water Development Report 2022 – also offered on Monday to mark the opening of the World H2o Discussion board in Dakar, which is being held until eventually next Friday – indicated that only 3% of total farmland is irrigated in sub-Saharan Africa.
And only 5% of that proportion is irrigated with groundwater, even with obtaining substantial reserves of this useful resource. Chief
mrgz/pa/cc