Groundwater could mitigate drought - SADC

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Wednesday November 5, 2008 00:00

Southern African Development Community (SADC) Groundwater and Drought and Drought Management Project communications and events officer, Barbara Lopi said the direct effect of climate change on groundwater resources depends on the change in the volume and distribution of groundwater recharge. She said that climate change is among the topics to be discussed at a two-day conference on groundwater in the SADC integrated water resources management (IWRM) initiative to be held from 18 to 19 November 18 to 19 in Gaborone.

The conference, jointly organised by SADC, the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) and the German Development Cooperation (GTZ), will discuss groundwater and related issues in the SADC region and develop a framework for the integration of groundwater into the IWRM approach. Lopi said that groundwater resources are likely to be relatively robust in the face of climate change compared with surface water due to the buffering effect of groundwater storage.

Groundwater may have an important role to play in ameliorating the worst effects of climate change on the water environment if managed appropriately.Under natural conditions, groundwater discharge sustains base flow in streams, wetlands and springs, thus climatic changes such as increased drought frequency, or extended dry seasons will increase demand on rural groundwater supplies. Groundwater sources may fail, or not cope with demand. Most at risk are unimproved shallow sources, and low yielding sources, she said.

It is also worth noting, she said, that groundwater is the critical underlying resource for human survival and economic development in extensive drought prone areas in large parts of rural Africa. Groundwater resources are much less drought prone than surface water due to large natural storage of aquifers, said Lopi.

In the SADC region, about one-third of the population lives in drought prone areas where groundwater is the primary source of drinking water for the human population, livestock, and most other activities, Lopi said the effects of climate variability to groundwater availability include severe droughts which causes drying up of shallow wells which are main sources of drinking water to rural population.Drying up of surface water sources, including shallow wells and dams during droughts, causes severe hardships as people who depend on such water sources are forced to use unsafe water, posing a risk to their health, she said.

Senior programme manager for water in the SADC Directorate of Infrastructure and Services, Phera Ramoeli, said groundwater should be considered as a strategic resource in alleviating poverty in the region because of the increasing demand and use of groundwater in human development endeavors.

 More information needs to be disseminated at various levels, he said, so that policy decision makers and the general public understand the role groundwater can play towards poverty alleviation and mitigation of drought.