A hidden crisis: unravelling current failures for future success in rural groundwater supply

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Our research project tackles one of the most pressing and under-researched areas within the African water sector: why do so many groundwater based rural water supplies fail within a short space of time, and what steps can be made in designing new water points to increase their sustainability? The ultimate beneficiaries of this research are the rural people within Africa who currently use unreliable shared water points and the estimated 300-400 million people who still have no access to improved water services. Given the high rates of source failure (30-40%), the research has the potential to make a major impact on the sector. Increased sustainability of water supplies will enable the benefits of improved health, nutrition, education opportunities, safety/dignity and livelihood security, to accrue within communities, rather than being repeatedly lost in cycles of supply failure. This is essential for long-term development and will particularly benefit women and children who bear the brunt of water collection.

There are a number of intermediary beneficiaries and direct users of the research who can directly use the new knowledge and techniques (1) multi-lateral agencies and donors with both regional and country-specific 'support' and funding mandates (e.g. WSP, DFID); (2) government ministries, departments and development partners (including NGOs) at national and regional level involved in the design of guidelines and policies; (3)implementing agencies, such as local government, NGOs and private sector actors, that develop and backstop rural water supply infrastructure (e.g. drilling companies); (4) the academic community, who can build on the detailed interdisciplinary research and data generated.

Donors and multinational agencies. The research outcomes will particularly help in mapping trajectories to targets such as the proposed new Sustainable Development Goals. Our research with more nuanced definitions of functional water points and the forecasting of future functionality under various scenarios will be of particular benefit.

Government Departments and national NGOs. This group set national policy and standards and mechanisms for monitoring. The research outcomes will help define the combination of factors that lead to water source failure, or success, and also propose a strategy for increasing the potential for rural water supply service to remain functional. This group will be engaged in the project from the outset by the strong links WaterAid and our Africa academic partners have with national government and regional stakeholders (e.g. AMCOW; Ethiopia's Water Sector Advisory Group). A wider international community of government, NGO and water industry stakeholders will be engaged through forums such as World Water Week.

Local government, NGOs, Practitioners. These are the people that actually commission, site and drill boreholes, install handpumps, mobilise communities and set up water user groups. The research will equip this group with investigative techniques, and knowledge of which factors are critical in different areas to long term sustainability. This group will take part in the country research programmes, and we will publish a comprehensive manual targeted at this group and online resources.

Research community: There is currently no comprehensive interdisciplinary dataset providing a post construction audit of rural water supplies. The research will deliver an innovative research methodology, and dataset, relating to functionality, governance, institutional functioning and groundwater resources. The research will be disseminated to international community through several, potentially benchmark, papers in high impact journals, and international conferences providing cutting edge of thinking about hybrid governance and critical institutionalism, and understanding of African groundwater. Long-term open access to the new dataset will enable future comparative and longitudinal work.