GroFutures: Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa
Lead Research Organisation:
University College London
Department Name: Geography
Abstract
The Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa (GroFutures) project will assemble an inter-disciplinary team of highly experienced physical and social scientists from Africa and Europe to generate new scientific evidence and methods to enable groundwater to be used sustainably and equitably tom improve the lives of poor people in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by way of improved access to safe water for drinking and domestic purposes as well as water for agricultural production. As SSA is a region of small-scale farmers, sustainable year-round access to water for agriculture is a core component of poverty alleviation strategies in this region. GroFutures also recognises the importance of protecting the quantity and quality of groundwater discharges that sustain rivers, lakes and wetlands and the benefits (e.g. fish, hydropower) derived from these.
Under a one-year catalyst grant, the GroFutures Team will work with government water ministries in Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania to conduct a series of pilot studies characterising and quantifying seasonal changes in groundwater demand under a range of potential development options including increased use of groundwater for irrigation as well as urban and rural water supplies in selected basins. Indicative changes in groundwater supply by way of rain-fed groundwater replenishment (recharge) will also be evaluated under this pilot research by examining relationships between climate and groundwater recharge in semi-arid (central Tanzania) and seasonally humid (northern Uganda) environments where long-term observational records exist. The evaluation will focus on observed recharge responses to changes in the intensity of rainfall that is projected to increase in a warmer world, under these contrasting climate regimes.
A significant innovation of the research conducted under this catalyst grant is the development and trial of a new metric of water availability that, for the first time, explicitly considers groundwater resources. Water availability will be redefined in terms of water storage requirements, be it natural (e.g. groundwater) or constructed (e.g. surface reservoirs), that are required to address imbalances between water supply and demand. As such, the metric will directly inform water management including sustainable allocations of groundwater. Because access to groundwater often disfavours poor water users, GroFutures will investigate pathways to enhance the governance and management of groundwater that recognise and support access of the poor to groundwater.
The interdisciplinary GroFutures Team is uniquely qualified to undertake the proposed research. It has conducted pioneering research evaluating factors that influence groundwater demand and supply and, as such, possesses invaluable long-term and detailed datasets as well as an acute understanding of the national development plans required to develop robust projections and scenarios of the future with which to determine the sustainability of groundwater resources in different settings. Having enjoyed long-term collaborations with government ministries who are project partners, the team is also able to review critical questions of groundwater governance and management.
Another key attribute of the GroFutures proposal is the holding of a pan-African workshop which will enable a rare opportunity for scientists in Anglophone and Francophone Africa to share their experiences and expertise. Scientists and government stakeholders in the GroFutures project will run the workshop jointly with a Francophone network of researchers, PICASS'EAU, from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, and Nigeria as well as potentially other UPGro Consortia and several invited international scientists who will examine the wider applicability of GroFutures pilot-study results to SSA and inform research to be proposed under a subsequent large, inter-disciplinary consortium proposal to the UPGro programme.
Under a one-year catalyst grant, the GroFutures Team will work with government water ministries in Ethiopia, Ghana and Tanzania to conduct a series of pilot studies characterising and quantifying seasonal changes in groundwater demand under a range of potential development options including increased use of groundwater for irrigation as well as urban and rural water supplies in selected basins. Indicative changes in groundwater supply by way of rain-fed groundwater replenishment (recharge) will also be evaluated under this pilot research by examining relationships between climate and groundwater recharge in semi-arid (central Tanzania) and seasonally humid (northern Uganda) environments where long-term observational records exist. The evaluation will focus on observed recharge responses to changes in the intensity of rainfall that is projected to increase in a warmer world, under these contrasting climate regimes.
A significant innovation of the research conducted under this catalyst grant is the development and trial of a new metric of water availability that, for the first time, explicitly considers groundwater resources. Water availability will be redefined in terms of water storage requirements, be it natural (e.g. groundwater) or constructed (e.g. surface reservoirs), that are required to address imbalances between water supply and demand. As such, the metric will directly inform water management including sustainable allocations of groundwater. Because access to groundwater often disfavours poor water users, GroFutures will investigate pathways to enhance the governance and management of groundwater that recognise and support access of the poor to groundwater.
The interdisciplinary GroFutures Team is uniquely qualified to undertake the proposed research. It has conducted pioneering research evaluating factors that influence groundwater demand and supply and, as such, possesses invaluable long-term and detailed datasets as well as an acute understanding of the national development plans required to develop robust projections and scenarios of the future with which to determine the sustainability of groundwater resources in different settings. Having enjoyed long-term collaborations with government ministries who are project partners, the team is also able to review critical questions of groundwater governance and management.
Another key attribute of the GroFutures proposal is the holding of a pan-African workshop which will enable a rare opportunity for scientists in Anglophone and Francophone Africa to share their experiences and expertise. Scientists and government stakeholders in the GroFutures project will run the workshop jointly with a Francophone network of researchers, PICASS'EAU, from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, and Nigeria as well as potentially other UPGro Consortia and several invited international scientists who will examine the wider applicability of GroFutures pilot-study results to SSA and inform research to be proposed under a subsequent large, inter-disciplinary consortium proposal to the UPGro programme.
Planned Impact
GroFutures will benefit: (1) poor people (including women) in SSA through the increased and disseminated knowledge and evidence on positive outcomes from groundwater development for health and livelihoods enabling poverty alleviation; (2) water planners and policy makers in SSA through the development of evidence and methodologies to quantify groundwater demand and supply through recharge thereby enabling equitable and sustainable use of groundwater resources; and (3) national and regional research communities in SSA through an improved networking and information exchanges as well as ultimately by way of improved knowledge, evidence and tools to develop and manage groundwater resources equitably and sustainably.
The primary pathway by which the GroFutures catalyst project will generate impacts for poor people in sub-Saharan Africa is through the development of evidence and tools which water managers in the focal countries can (a) target groundwater development where it can most effectively reduce poverty, and (b) ensure equitable and sustainable development of groundwater resources.
GroFutures will contribute to unlocking the poverty-reducing potential of groundwater in SSA by:
1) generating new evidence on groundwater availability and demand, including insights into how these are likely to change over the next two to three decades giving planners at basin, national and regional levels the information they need to plan for an equitable and sustainable allocation of groundwater, for multiple users and uses;
2) Identifying locations and circumstances in which groundwater development (for domestic supply or irrigation) is a feasible strategy to reduce poverty;
3) Identifying areas where groundwater is at risk of future depletion due to likely demand/supply imbalances enabling management responses to be developed on a preventive rather than curative basis;
4) Providing specific information on the seasonal variations of water availability and demand which can carry high costs for economies and for the livelihoods of poor people and make planning and management difficult;
5) Piloting a new tool (water availability metric incorporating groundwater storage) which planners can use to assess groundwater futures in their basin;
6) Strengthening the capacity of water planners through co-production of knowledge and collaborative, demand-based research and piloting;
7) Identifying governance options for pro-poor, sustainable groundwater management, in collaboration with water managers and other key stakeholders; and
8) Disseminating evidence and knowledge on the positive outcomes of groundwater development for health and livelihoods enabling poverty alleviation.
The GroFutures team will engage staff of national, regional and local water bureaux in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania as project partners from the start in the research planning, data analysis and tool/metric development and piloting. They will also embed new scientific knowledge, models and methods for managing groundwater for poverty alleviation within water ministries to inform decision-making and initiate discussions about equity in groundwater development among relevant stakeholders. Findings and methods will also be actively shared with a West African initiative on groundwater in West Africa, PICASS'EAU, for impact outside the study countries.
Production and dissemination of high quality, open-source publications - in the form of academic outputs in high impact journals, as well as targeted policy briefs and other bespoke communications materials suited to different audiences - will be a central aim of the project. These will be co-authored by African and UK-based collaborators and published in English, as well as Amharic and Swahili, where appropriate. The materials will be posted on a dedicated Groundwater Futures webpage of the ESRC-STEPS Centre (www.steps-centre.org), with links to the websites of other key partner organisations.
The primary pathway by which the GroFutures catalyst project will generate impacts for poor people in sub-Saharan Africa is through the development of evidence and tools which water managers in the focal countries can (a) target groundwater development where it can most effectively reduce poverty, and (b) ensure equitable and sustainable development of groundwater resources.
GroFutures will contribute to unlocking the poverty-reducing potential of groundwater in SSA by:
1) generating new evidence on groundwater availability and demand, including insights into how these are likely to change over the next two to three decades giving planners at basin, national and regional levels the information they need to plan for an equitable and sustainable allocation of groundwater, for multiple users and uses;
2) Identifying locations and circumstances in which groundwater development (for domestic supply or irrigation) is a feasible strategy to reduce poverty;
3) Identifying areas where groundwater is at risk of future depletion due to likely demand/supply imbalances enabling management responses to be developed on a preventive rather than curative basis;
4) Providing specific information on the seasonal variations of water availability and demand which can carry high costs for economies and for the livelihoods of poor people and make planning and management difficult;
5) Piloting a new tool (water availability metric incorporating groundwater storage) which planners can use to assess groundwater futures in their basin;
6) Strengthening the capacity of water planners through co-production of knowledge and collaborative, demand-based research and piloting;
7) Identifying governance options for pro-poor, sustainable groundwater management, in collaboration with water managers and other key stakeholders; and
8) Disseminating evidence and knowledge on the positive outcomes of groundwater development for health and livelihoods enabling poverty alleviation.
The GroFutures team will engage staff of national, regional and local water bureaux in Ethiopia, Ghana, and Tanzania as project partners from the start in the research planning, data analysis and tool/metric development and piloting. They will also embed new scientific knowledge, models and methods for managing groundwater for poverty alleviation within water ministries to inform decision-making and initiate discussions about equity in groundwater development among relevant stakeholders. Findings and methods will also be actively shared with a West African initiative on groundwater in West Africa, PICASS'EAU, for impact outside the study countries.
Production and dissemination of high quality, open-source publications - in the form of academic outputs in high impact journals, as well as targeted policy briefs and other bespoke communications materials suited to different audiences - will be a central aim of the project. These will be co-authored by African and UK-based collaborators and published in English, as well as Amharic and Swahili, where appropriate. The materials will be posted on a dedicated Groundwater Futures webpage of the ESRC-STEPS Centre (www.steps-centre.org), with links to the websites of other key partner organisations.
People |
ORCID iD |
Richard Taylor (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Cuthbert MO
(2019)
Observed controls on resilience of groundwater to climate variability in sub-Saharan Africa.
in Nature
Damkjaer S
(2017)
The measurement of water scarcity: Defining a meaningful indicator.
in Ambio
Geressu R
(2022)
Evaluating the sensitivity of robust water resource interventions to climate change scenarios
in Climate Risk Management
Ibrahim M
(2014)
Long-term increase in diffuse groundwater recharge following expansion of rainfed cultivation in the Sahel, West Africa
in Hydrogeology Journal
Muchingami I
(2021)
Integration of hydrogeophysical and geological investigations in enhancing groundwater potential assessment in Houtriver gneiss crystalline basement formation of South Africa
in Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C
Shamsudduha M
(2017)
Recent changes in terrestrial water storage in the Upper Nile Basin: an evaluation of commonly used gridded GRACE products
in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
Taylor R
(2014)
Hydrology: When wells run dry.
in Nature
Description | Africa Capacity Building Initiative |
Amount | £1,186,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | AQ140023 |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2015 |
End | 12/2019 |
Description | African Groundwater Atlas - Phase II - UPGro Programme |
Amount | £3,622,077 (GBP) |
Funding ID | NE/M008347/1 |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 04/2017 |
End | 03/2019 |
Description | CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems |
Amount | $2,240,000 (USD) |
Organisation | CGIAR |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | France |
Start | 01/2013 |
End | 12/2021 |
Description | CLARITY: CLimate Adaptation and Resilience In Tropical drYlands |
Amount | $8,000,000 (CAD) |
Funding ID | 110006 |
Organisation | International Development Research Centre |
Sector | Public |
Country | Canada |
Start | 05/2023 |
End | 10/2026 |
Description | CLimate Adaptation and Resilience In Tropical drYlands (CLARITY). CLARE programme |
Amount | $8,000,000 (CAD) |
Organisation | International Development Research Centre |
Sector | Public |
Country | Canada |
Start | 04/2023 |
End | 10/2026 |
Description | Enhancing Sustainable Groundwater Use in Africa - Phase 2 |
Amount | 90,000 kr. (DKK) |
Organisation | University of Copenhagen |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | Denmark |
Start | 03/2022 |
End | 02/2025 |
Description | UN SDGs: Pathways to Achievement scheme, 2021-22 - Advancing and sustaining progress towards UN SDGs in African drylands - crossing disciplinary and international boundaries |
Amount | £10,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | 556298 |
Organisation | University College London |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2022 |
End | 07/2022 |
Title | A Field Guide on Participatory Research for Identifying and Analysing Groundwater Development Pathways |
Description | A detailed (102 page) field guide was prepared for GroFutures social scientists to support community-level research on groundwater use and management problems and opportunities. It focuses particularly on qualitative data collection obtained through the use of Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) methods. The aim is to provide sufficient information to ensure that a standard set of information would be collected across all local partners and in all the focal communities in the three 'Basin Observatories'. Although clearly designed to meet the specific research objectives of the GroFutures project, we believe the integrated approach and novel set of methods presented here will also be of interest to other researchers working on agriculture, water and natural resource governance and management issues. |
Type Of Material | Physiological assessment or outcome measure |
Year Produced | 2019 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | The country research teams are now intending to combine qualitative research methods based on the Field Guide with a targeted household survey in selected field sites. This quant-qual approach will yield insights on changes in groundwater availability, access and use in the study communities and inform the development of the GroFutures 'Pathways Approach'. |
URL | http://grofutures.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/GroFutures-Field-Guide-on-Participatory-Research-No... |
Description | African Groundwater Atlas - Phase II - Institute of Development Studies Support to the Social Science Component of the African Water Atlas in Partnership with the British Geological Survey |
Organisation | British Geological Survey |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Developed 20 social science case studies of groundwater development in Africa. These have now been added to the AGWA website. |
Collaborator Contribution | Sharing contacts, refining content and promoting the African Groundwater Atlas. |
Impact | The social science case studies were added to the AGWA website to provide real-world examples of groundwater development and use in different contexts to complement the mainly physical science material on the site. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Water stressed cities: individual choice, access to water and pathways to resilience in sub-Saharan Africa |
Organisation | Cardiff University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Collaboration between Professor Japhet Kashaigili (GroFutures co-PI @ Sokoine University of Agriculture) and Dr. Adrian Healey at Cardiff for a project titled: Water stressed cities: individual choice, access to water and pathways to resilience in sub-Saharan Africa funded by UKRI (2021-2023). |
Collaborator Contribution | Collaboration between Professor Japhet Kashaigili (GroFutures co-PI @ Sokoine University of Agriculture) and Dr. Adrian Healey at Cardiff for a project titled: Water stressed cities: individual choice, access to water and pathways to resilience in sub-Saharan Africa funded by UKRI (2021-2023). |
Impact | Multi-disciplinary collaboration (hydrogeology and behavioural science) between Professor Japhet Kashaigili (GroFutures co-PI @ Sokoine University of Agriculture) and Dr. Adrian Healey at Cardiff for a project titled: Water stressed cities: individual choice, access to water and pathways to resilience in sub-Saharan Africa funded by UKRI (2021-2023). |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | African Ministerial Council on Water - Africa Water and Sanitation Week 2021 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | GroFutures led and presented in three conference sessions at the AMCOW Africa Water and Sanitation Week 2021 Under what conditions are groundwater resources resilient to climate change? (PI Taylor) • Groundwater replenishment from flood discharges in central Tanzania: sustaining Dodoma's water supply (co-PI Kashaigili) • Sustaining groundwater withdrawals in SE Niger from episodic flows of the transboundary River Goulbi de Maradi (co-PI Nazoumou) • Groundwater recharge from heavy rainfall in the southwestern Lake Chad Basin: evidence from isotopic observations (co-I Goni) Putting Groundwater on the pan-African Agenda for Resilience and Sustainable Socioeconomic Transformation (co-PIs Villholth, MacDonald) Managed Aquifer Recharge and its role in climate change resilience in Africa (co-PI Villholth) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://amcow-online.org/events/join-amcow-at-the-world-water-week-2021 |
Description | Dodoma Stakeholder Engagement Workshop April 2022: Matokeo ya utafiti wa maji yaliyopo chini ya ardhi katika jiji la Dodoma |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 40 participants from the general public to senior government officials (e.g. Tanzanian Director of Water Resources) engaged in sustained discussions over the future of water supply for Dodoma, the capital city of Tanzania. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://www.sua.ac.tz/news/matokeo-ya-utafiti-wa-maji-yaliyopo-chini-ya-ardhi-katika-jiji-la-dodoma |
Description | ISARM (International Shared Aquifer Resources Management) 2nd Conference - UNESCO-IHP (France) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | At the ISARM 2nd Conference, presentations were given by GroFutures Research Assistant Boukari (Niger): "Transboundary groundwater recharge in a dryland environment: evidence from the River Goulbi de Maradi Basin in Niger and Nigeria" (Boukari) and GroFutures Research Assistant Rabilou (Niger): "Groundwater discharge to the River Niger from a large paleochannel estimated from surface geophysics in the Iullemmeden Basin of Niger and Nigeria" as well as GroFutures co-PI Villholth: "Transboundary Aquifer Governance in the Context of Transfrontier Conservation Areas - An opportunity for synergy in the Southern African Development Community" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.isarm2021.org/ |
Description | Nigerian Association of Hydrogeologists Annual Meeting 2021 - Katsina, Nigeria |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentations delivered by GroFutures Research Assistant Rabilou (Niger): "Groundwater discharge to the Niger River from a large Quaternary valley estimated from subsurface geophysics in the Iullemmeden Basin" and GroFutures Research Assistant Boukari (Niger): "Groundwater/Surface water relationship in the transboundary basin Goulbi de Maradi: evidence from well hydrographs, and MRS and TDEM Soundings" |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://nah-nigeria.org/#/event-details/NAH-32nd-Annual-Conference-2021 |
Description | Tanzania 2nd SUA (Sokoine University of Agriculture) Scientific Conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Presentation by PI Taylor delivered to policymakers and practitioners: Focused groundwater recharge to the Makutapora Wellfield of central semi-arid Tanzania: empirical evidence to inform Managed Aquifer Recharge |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.sua.ac.tz/events/2nd-sua-scientific-conference-25th-26th-may-2021 |