GroFutures: Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa
Lead Research Organisation:
International Water Management Institute
Department Name: Regional Office for Southern Africa
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Planned Impact
GroFutures will benefit: (1) poor water users (women and men, rural and urban) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through increased knowledge and evidence of sustainable groundwater use to alleviate poverty through improved resource management and enhanced health and livelihoods; (2) water planners and policy makers in SSA through the development of new evidence and methodologies to enable equitable and sustainable management of groundwater resources; and (3) research communities in SSA and beyond through creating improved new tools, methods and datasets for interdisciplinary analysis of groundwater resources and their management, as well as scholarly information exchanges and networking activities that will strengthen a growing Community of Practice involving Anglophone and Francophone scientists.
The primary pathway by which GroFutures will generate impacts for poor people is through the development of new evidence and tools which water managers in the focal countries and across SSA can use to: (1) target groundwater development where it can most effectively reduce poverty; and (2) ensure equitable and sustainable development of groundwater resources.
GroFutures will contribute to unlocking the poverty-reducing potential of groundwater in SSA by:
1) Establishing a unique Network of African Groundwater Observatories (NAGO) that will generate 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 in which groundwater development (for domestic supply or irrigation) is a technically appropriate and politically feasible strategy to reduce poverty;
3) Identifying locations at risk of future depletion due to likely demand/supply imbalances enabling appropriate management responses to be developed on a preventive rather than curative basis;
4) Providing specific information on variations in groundwater availability and demand which can carry high costs for economies and for the livelihoods of poor people and make planning and management difficult;
5) Strengthening the capacity of water planners, researchers and their institutions through the co-production of knowledge and collaborative, demand-led research and stakeholder engagement;
6) Identifying governance arrangements for pro-poor, sustainable groundwater management, in collaboration with water managers and other key stakeholders; and
7) Disseminating new 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, Niger and Tanzania, as well as basin authorities (Great Ruaha, Niger) 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.
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 involve all members of the team and will be published in English, as well as French, Amharic, Hausa and Kiswahili, where appropriate. All materials and information will be accessible via a dedicated, bilingual website (grofutures.org) that is linked to institutional websites of the project team (AAU, BGS, IDS-STEPS, IGRAC, IRD, IWMI, SUA, UAM, UCL, UoS) and the UPGro Knowledge Broker.
The primary pathway by which GroFutures will generate impacts for poor people is through the development of new evidence and tools which water managers in the focal countries and across SSA can use to: (1) target groundwater development where it can most effectively reduce poverty; and (2) ensure equitable and sustainable development of groundwater resources.
GroFutures will contribute to unlocking the poverty-reducing potential of groundwater in SSA by:
1) Establishing a unique Network of African Groundwater Observatories (NAGO) that will generate 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 in which groundwater development (for domestic supply or irrigation) is a technically appropriate and politically feasible strategy to reduce poverty;
3) Identifying locations at risk of future depletion due to likely demand/supply imbalances enabling appropriate management responses to be developed on a preventive rather than curative basis;
4) Providing specific information on variations in groundwater availability and demand which can carry high costs for economies and for the livelihoods of poor people and make planning and management difficult;
5) Strengthening the capacity of water planners, researchers and their institutions through the co-production of knowledge and collaborative, demand-led research and stakeholder engagement;
6) Identifying governance arrangements for pro-poor, sustainable groundwater management, in collaboration with water managers and other key stakeholders; and
7) Disseminating new 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, Niger and Tanzania, as well as basin authorities (Great Ruaha, Niger) 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.
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 involve all members of the team and will be published in English, as well as French, Amharic, Hausa and Kiswahili, where appropriate. All materials and information will be accessible via a dedicated, bilingual website (grofutures.org) that is linked to institutional websites of the project team (AAU, BGS, IDS-STEPS, IGRAC, IRD, IWMI, SUA, UAM, UCL, UoS) and the UPGro Knowledge Broker.
Organisations
Publications
Gudaga J
(2018)
Effectiveness of groundwater governance structures and institutions in Tanzania
in Applied Water Science
Kolusu, Seshagiri
The El Niño event of 2015-16: Climate anomalies and their impact on groundwater resources in East and Southern Africa
in Environmental Research Letters
Abdou Babaye M
(2018)
Characterization of recharge mechanisms in a Precambrian basement aquifer in semi-arid south-west Niger
in Hydrogeology Journal
Faye S
(2019)
Tracing natural groundwater recharge to the Thiaroye aquifer of Dakar, Senegal
in Hydrogeology Journal
Taylor R
(2019)
Topical Collection: Determining groundwater sustainability from long-term piezometry in Sub-Saharan Africa
in Hydrogeology Journal
Carvalho Resende T
(2018)
Assessment of the impacts of climate variability on total water storage across Africa: implications for groundwater resources management
in Hydrogeology Journal
Blamey R
(2018)
The role of regional circulation features in regulating El Niño climate impacts over southern Africa: A comparison of the 2015/2016 drought with previous events
in International Journal of Climatology
Lazenby M
(2018)
Future Precipitation Projections over Central and Southern Africa and the Adjacent Indian Ocean: What Causes the Changes and the Uncertainty?
in Journal of Climate
Bonsor H
(2018)
Seasonal and Decadal Groundwater Changes in African Sedimentary Aquifers Estimated Using GRACE Products and LSMs
in Remote Sensing
Gudaga JL
(2018)
Development in East Africa Environment and Economy
| Description | GroFutures research derived from inter-disciplinary research in three basins in each of Tanzania, Ethiopia and Niger found: (1) substantial increases in urban and irrigated-land areas have occurred at the expense of natural land cover; (2) access to groundwater for productive purposes is associated with improved agricultural production, reduced agricultural risk, and increased household income; and (3) stakeholders expressed a strong preference for small to medium-scale, multi-purpose groundwater development pathways that are managed municipally and a strong aversion to large-scale groundwater development pathways due largely to concerns of environmental impact and equity. GroFutures also led a pan-African analysis of long-term piezometric records under conditions of varying aridity across 9 countries in tropical Africa that revealed a bias in groundwater replenishment to heavy rainfalls that is most pronounced in drylands and is often predictable, associated with large-scale controls on climate variability such as El Niño. Further the research highlighted the importance of focused recharge pathways in replenishing aquifers in drylands, a process that is not represented in hydrological models estimating recharge and the impacts of climate change on groundwater recharge. Detailed field research in a semi-arid environment, the Makutapora Wellfield supplying Tanzania's capital city, Dodoma, shows that groundwater replenishment is episodic, occurring primarily during heavy rain events associated with El Nino; this replenishment results primarily via leakage from ephemeral stream discharge. |
| Exploitation Route | GroFutures research showing access to groundwater for productive purposes is associated with improved agricultural production and increased household income is being taken forward by AMCOW (African Ministerial Council on Water) as well as national governments to promote groundwater use to alleviate poverty and realise UN Sustainable Development Goals. Further, GroFutures research revealing a bias in groundwater replenishment to heavy rainfalls across tropical Africa, expected to increase under global warming, is being taken up through climate change adaptation plans as use of groundwater may prove a logical adaptation to climate change and projected increases in freshwater withdrawals for drinking water and irrigation. Research under GroFutures at the Makutapora Wellfield supplying Tanzania's capital city, Dodoma, shows that groundwater replenishment is episodic and occurs primarily during heavy rain events associated with El Niño events. Further, field research also shows that it occurs primarily via leakage from ephemeral stream discharge associated with heavy rainfall events. As a consequence of this research, the Government of Tanzania with support from The World Bank has issued a tender for the development plans to explore the feasibility of enhancing wellfield replenishment through Managed Aquifer Recharge in order to improve the capacity and resilience of Dodoma's water supply. The GroFutures Project, as well as the broader UPGro Program, were very successful. They generated a lot of spin-off, and continues to do so, e.g. through the GRAN Project (EP/T003324/1 - GCRF Groundwater for Resilience in Africa Network) and its wide collaboration with African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW), the apex body on water in Africa. The GRAN is now supporting AMCOW on implementing their pan-Africa Groundwater Program (APAGroP: https://amcow-online.org/initiatives/amcow-pan-african-groundwater-program-apagrop). Another good site to visit is the Groundwater Solutions Initiative for Policy and Practice (GRIPP, https://gripp.iwmi.org/), which has covered broadly on the UPGro and GroFutures outcomes. Dr. Karen Villholth from IWMI, International Water Management Institute, is coordinating this initiative of 30 international partners. |
| Sectors | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Security and Diplomacy |
| URL | http://www.grofutures.org |
| Description | Research under GroFutures at the Makutapora Wellfield supplying Tanzania's capital city, Dodoma, shows that groundwater replenishment is episodic and occurs primarily during heavy rain events associated with El Niño events. Further, field research also shows that it occurs primarily via leakage from ephemeral stream discharge associated with heavy rainfall events. As a consequence of this research, the Government of Tanzania with support from The World Bank has issued a tender for the development plans to explore the feasibility of enhancing wellfield replenishment through Managed Aquifer Recharge in order to improve the capacity and resilience of Dodoma's water supply. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2019 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Communities and Social Services/Policy,Environment,Security and Diplomacy |
| Impact Types | Economic |
| Description | Appointment to Scientific Council of IRD (France) |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Description | Field Guide on Participatory Research for Identifying and Analysing Groundwater Development Pathways |
| Geographic Reach | Africa |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Research in groundwater and sustainable management and utilization of groundwater in Tanzania |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| 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 | Danida (ESGUSA Project) |
| Amount | 870,000Â kr. (DKK) |
| Funding ID | 17-M10-KU |
| Organisation | University of Copenhagen |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | Denmark |
| Start | 04/2018 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | Scholarship (GroFutures Research Assistantship) |
| Amount | £1,200,000 (XOF) |
| Organisation | Abdou Moumouni University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | Niger |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 09/2019 |
| Description | UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund |
| Amount | £88,500 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | GCRF UCL QR |
| Organisation | University College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2018 |
| End | 06/2019 |
| Description | USAID (GRECHLIM Project) |
| Amount | $90,000 (USD) |
| Funding ID | AID-OAA-A-11-00012 / 2000006305 |
| Organisation | International Water Management Institute (IWMI) |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | Sri Lanka |
| Start | 01/2016 |
| End | 12/2018 |
| Title | Integrated surface water - groundwater model of the Makutapora Basin, Tanzania |
| Description | The development model in MIKE-SHE has been calibrated with observational records and applied to test scenarios of groundwater withdrawals for the city of Dodoma, Tanzania. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The model outcomes have been shared with the Tanzanian government. These outcomes are of utmost importance as they show that increased pumpage from the wellfield supplying the capital of Tanzania, Dodoma, is unsustainable. |
| Title | MIKE-SHE hydrological model of the Upper Awash Basin, Ethiopia |
| Description | A basin-scale hydrological model in MIKE-SHE has been calibrated to observations and run with a range of climate projections to evaluate climate change impacts on the hydrology of this basin. |
| Type Of Material | Computer model/algorithm |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The calibrated MIKE-SHE model highlights the magnitude of uncertainty associated with climate change impacts on terrestrial hydrology as well as the intensification of rainfall as a result of global warming on river discharge. |
| Title | Questionnaires from 400 households on groundwater use in each of Ethiopia, Niger and Tanzania |
| Description | Database comprises 400 respondents to questionnaires on groundwater use in groundwater observatories in Ethiopia, Niger and Tanzania |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | Analyses of questionnaire data are on-going in 2019. |
| Description | Banking the rain: Understanding episodic groundwater recharge from 2015-16 El Nino rains in semi-arid Tanzania, for sustainable water supplies |
| Organisation | University of Sussex |
| Department | Department of Geography |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | My research team and I prepared a proposal to NERC for funding under the programme, "Understanding the Impacts of the Current El Nino Event". |
| Collaborator Contribution | My partners contributed to the preparation of a proposal to NERC for funding under the programme, "Understanding the Impacts of the Current El Nino Event". |
| Impact | A proposal was submitted to NERC through JeS and we are awaiting the outcomes of this evaluation. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | GRECHLIM: Groundwater Recharge in the Limpopo Basin |
| Organisation | US Geological Survey |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | GroFutures research team members, Karen Villholth and Tamiru Abiye, have developed this partnership funded by USAID and involving the US Geological Survey allied to GroFutures research in the Limpopo Basin of South Africa. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The GRECHLIM Project collaborate with the following main partners: Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), South Africa, Department of Water Affairs (DWA), Botswana, Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM), Water Research Commission (WRC), South Africa, Southern African Development Community (SADC), and University of Texas at Austin, USA. |
| Impact | The project has so far supported field work for three MSc students from the University of Witwatersrand. Two of these students have submitted their theses for examination at the end of February 2017, while the third student has started field work in March 2017. We are expecting more MSc students to join the project team during the course of the year. Furthermore, the project also provided training for PhD and MSc student from both South Africa and Botswana on groundwater recharge estimation techniques on 11-12 October 2016 at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Groundwater model for Dendron/ Hout catchment has been developed to understand the groundwater use and recharge dynamics. Furthermore, independent groundwater recharge estimation using geochemical and stable isotope techniques is in progress. Therefore, we believe that these information could contribute for the development of better groundwater management plan in the basin. |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | Sustaining groundwater use in the Hout Catchment in the Limpopo Basin of South Africa |
| Organisation | University of Copenhagen |
| Department | Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management |
| Country | Denmark |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | GroFutures is actively collaborating with the University of Copenhagen and the University of Western Cape (South Africa) in an analysis of the sustainability of groundwater use in the Hout Catchment, part of the Limpopo Basin in South Africa. GroFutures has provided a detailed analysis including a basin model of the hydrology and hydrogeology of this catchment and is contributing to the analysis of extreme weather events and their relation to groundwater recharge as well as engaging with stakeholders in workshops to better understand groundwater use and opportunities for community monitoring of water resources (i.e. Citizen Science). |
| Collaborator Contribution | University of Western Cape is providing inputs to stakeholder engagement processes including Citizen Science as well as the understanding of the hydrogeology of the Hout Catchment. University of Copenhagen is providing inputs around numerical modelling. |
| Impact | Outcomes include a paper in an international, peer-reviewed journal and active participation in stakeholder engagement meetings. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | The Chronicles Consortium |
| Organisation | Institute of Development Research (IRD) |
| Country | France |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The Chronicles Consortium is an international consortium of scientists from (currently) 12 countries across Africa and beyond collating and analysing multi-decadal records of groundwater levels, representing long-term aquifer dynamics, in order to assess the impacts of groundwater use, climate variability and change, and land-use change on groundwater storage across Africa. It is a joint initiative of the African Groundwater Network (AGW-Net), IAH Commission on Groundwater and Climate Change, and UNESCO-IHP GRAPHIC programme that is supported by the UPGro (Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor) programme of the UK government (DFID, NERC, ESRC) and the French government (IRD). |
| Collaborator Contribution | The consortium was established at the 41st Congress of the IAH (International Association of Hydrogeologists) in Marrakech, Morocco on 14 September 2014 and is led by Guillaume Favreau (IRD, France), and Richard Taylor (University College London, UK). |
| Impact | Collation and analysis of multi-decadal groundwater-level records from 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa; special sessions at the 41st, 42nd and 43rd Congresses of the IAH; a training and knowledge co-production workshop (http://grofutures.org/article/pan-african-groundwater-level-analysis-and-training-workshop/) leading to high-profile research papers (in review at Nature) and special section of a international peer-reviewed journal, HydrogeologyJournal (https://link.springer.com/journal/10040/topicalCollection/AC_e3c0faa5b3f6346668bc822aa431123d). |
| Start Year | 2015 |
| Description | UPGro Institute of Development Studies (IDS) and British Geological Survey (BGS) Collaboration |
| Organisation | British Geological Survey |
| Department | Geomagnetism Group |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | New partnership between the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), which is a co-PI on Groundwater Futures in Sub-Saharan Africa (GroFutures) has formed to provide key social science elements to the further development of the African Groundwater Atlas (https://upgro.org/africa-groundwater-atlas/), with support from NERC-ESRC-DFID through the 'Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor' (UPGro) programme. GroFutures will provide key social science information to this newly established collaboration. |
| Collaborator Contribution | British Geological Survey (BGS) has already developed the African Groundwater Atlas that is publicly available (https://www.bgs.ac.uk/africagroundwateratlas/) and provides a summary of geological and hydrogeological environments of 51 African countries in Africa. The newly established collaboration will further enrich the African Groundwater Atlas by including critical social science elements for sustainable groundwater development in Sub-Saharan Africa |
| Impact | No outputs or outcomes have yet resulted from this collaboration. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | GroFutures transboundary Iullemmeden Basin Stakeholder Inception Workshop |
| 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 | GroFutures Iullemmeden Basin Stakeholder Workshop was held at Abdou Moumouni University (UAM) of Niamey in Niger on 23rd August 2016. The workshop was opened by the Vice Chancellor, Hon. Professor Amadou Boureima, and welcomed by the Director General of Water Resources in the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation of Niger, Mr. Abdou Moumouni Moussa; Engineer Koné Soungalo representing the Niger Basin Authority; Dr. Oumarou Malam Issa, Country Representative of IRD in Niger; and the Deans of Faculties of Sciences and Agronomy (UAM). The workshop was hosted by the GroFutures team from UAM (Professor Yahaya Nazoumou, Dr. Ouassa Tiekoura), the University of Maiduguri in Nigeria (Professor Ibrahim Baba Goni, Dr. Shettima Abba Gana), and IRD (Dr. Guillaume Favreau). Over 40 participants participated and included representatives from agricultural cooperatives (Coopérative périmètre irrigué in Maradi, Coopérative agricole in Gaya), regional (Maradi, Dosso) and national offices of the Ministry of Hydraulics and Sanitation, and local universities (Mardi, Diffa). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://grofutures.org/article/grofutures-launch-in-transboundary-iullemmeden-basin/ |
| Description | 1st Multi-Stakeholder Workshop in the Hout Catchment of South Africa: establishing Citizen Science |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | GroFutures contributed to the 1st Multi-Stakeholder Workshop in the Hout Catchment of the Limpopo Basin South Africa in an effort to establish Citizen Science activities, primarily monitoring water resources. 48 people from government, community organisations, farmers, consultants and researchers participated in a two-day meeting evaluating the sustainability of groundwater use in the Hout Catchment including the dependency upon groundwater and opportunities for improving monitoring through Citizen Science. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | GROFUTURES INCEPTION WORKSHOP IN ADDIS ABABA |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Some 25 social and physical scientists from 12 participating organisations in 11 different countries met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to kick-off the GroFutures project. The GroFutures team began the workshop with a field trip to the Upper Awash Basin to assess changing patterns of groundwater management and use. Team members then worked together to review integrated physical and social science research plans in the 3 focal 'Basin Observatories' comprising the Upper Awash (Ethiopia), Great Ruaha (Tanzania), and Iullemmeden (Niger/Nigeria). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://grofutures.org/article/grofutures-launched-at-inception-workshop-in-addis-ababa/ |
| Description | GroFutures Great Ruaha Basin Stakeholder Inception Workshop |
| 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 | Sokoine University of Agriculture of Tanzania hosted the GroFutures Great Ruaha Basin Inception Workshop in Iringa on March 31st 2016. It was opened by the District Commissioner for Iringa, Hon. Richard Kasesela, and was attended by national, basin-level and local stakeholders (listed below) who discussed current groundwater use and management in the Great Ruaha Sub-Catchment of the Rufiji Basin and as well as both proposed and potential groundwater development pathways that might best reduce poverty. The event was featured on national television news in Tanzania (see clip here) and leading newspapers (The Guardian, Mwananchi). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://grofutures.org/article/grofutures-launch-in-tanzania/ |
| Description | GroFutures Upper Awash Basin Stakeholder Inception Workshop |
| 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 | GroFutures Ethiopian team led by Prof. Tenalem Ayenew hosted an inception workshop held at Addis Ababa on July 9, 2016. The workshop was attended by national and local level stakeholders from ministries (Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources) zonal and wereda-level water, mineral, agriculture offices, Awash River basin and oromia irrigation development authorities, and zonal and wereda level administrations. Richard Taylor, lead principal investigator of the groundwater futures project, opened the workshop pointing out the importance of understanding and managing the available groundwater for drinking and especially, sustainable irrigated agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa. He added, grofutures project is seeking to improve the understanding and management of groundwater resources under the changing climate and development practices through answering questions regarding how much groundwater is available, how much water is accessible and how much is renewable. He also demonstrates, how important it would be to understand the tradeoffs and opportunities of intensive groundwater use and to answer critical questions including what role do the irrigation officers and local farmers get in the discussion of future groundwater development and use. He wrapped up the opening of the workshop by stating that grofutures is about knowledge generation to substantially improve understanding of replenishment of the groundwater resource and how it behaves in the future as a function of climate change, change in land use land cover and trends of groundwater use. A number of discussion points both from the physical science grofutures team (Prof. Tenalem and Ato Behailu) and social science team (John Thompson, Moutuma and Birhanu) were presented and thoroughly discussed by the participants. The physical science team presented the physical environment of Upper Awash basin with particular emphasis to Becho and Koka plane, which are focal areas of the grofutures research in the Upper Awash basin. Methodology of groundwater assessment, data availability, preliminary results and next work plan have been presented. Water quality assessment, within the context of the grofutures objective were raised to be incorporated by the participants. Besides, wereda level field survey on population growth, population density, irrigation area, land use and land cover, types, characteristics and ownership of shallow wells and water extraction technologies were presented by the social science team. After important reflections which will enrich the theme of the project were gathered from the participants, Prof. John Thompson, lead investigator of the social component of the groundwater futures project, concluded aspect of the social presentation by emphasizing the importance of identifying groundwater development pathways in the course of grofutures research period, which enable us move from narrow set of 'groundwater roads' to a wider set of possible groundwater futures that are more proper, sustainable and bring about large scale benefits to poverty reduction and improvements in wellbeing. Group discussions on two key points: 1. the key opportunities (physical, socioeconomic and political) and threats to improving GW management in Upper Awash basin for alleviating poverty and improving livelihoods and 2. the current and projected uses of groundwater for agricultural water supplies (e.g. crops, livestock's) created a ground to exchange ideas among stake holders. Important thinking and finding generated from the group discussions were presented for the attendants. Finally, as the nature of the project is multidisciplinary integrating social and natural science, the need to have a platform for the different stakeholders to exchange information were raised. The grofutures team and leaders of the project thank the participants for their insight during the discussions and willingness to cooperate in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Household questionnaires on groundwater use in Ethiopia, Niger and Tanzania |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | GroFutures researchers have engaged with groundwater users in Ethiopia, Niger and Tanzania in 2017 and 2018 through the implementation a common survey instrument. In the Iullemmeden Basin in Nigeria and Niger, the Upper Awash Basin in Ethiopia, and the Great Ruaha Sub-Catchment in southern Tanzania, GroFutures researchers have been polling groundwater users' views on small-scale, household-level use of groundwater for irrigation, the status of groundwater governance, and their experiences of different irrigation, pump, conveyance and application technologies. This research activity addresses a critical lack of detailed information regarding not only groundwater use and dependence but also governance arrangements as experienced at the household level. In the Upper Awash Basin, the GroFutures team working alongside the Oromia Irrigation Development Authority has recently completed a survey of 400 households, representing 30% of the population from predominantly agricultural communities within the Becho and Koka Plains at Alango Tulu and Dungigi-Bekele. In the Great Ruaha Sub-Catchment, the survey has been trialled with user communities in Chimala and Mbarali as well as the Maradi and Gaya areas of Niger. Results from the surveys will inform scenarios being co-created by GroFutures researchers, groundwater users and other stakeholders to inform an inclusive an participatory Pathways Approach in which groundwater users and other stakeholders will develop their own criteria for evaluating different groundwater development pathways for which the physical sustainability is determined by models developed using evidence from local observatories recently established under GroFutures. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| Description | International Conference on Lake Chad 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The international conference on environmental challenges faced by the Lake Chad Basin in West Africa. The conference was attended by politicians, and the head of states from Niger, Nigeria, Gabon, Central African Republic and Chad. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://lcbconference2017.ng/english/index.php |
| Description | Pan-African Groundwater-level (Chronicles) Training Workshop in Morogoro,Tanzania |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The UPGro programme, supported by AfriWatSan & ESPRC, conducted a pan-African capacity-strengthening and knowledge co-production workshop at Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania from the 10th to 12th of February, 2017. 40 participants from 12 countries in Africa took part and analysed multi-decadal, groundwater-level data ("chronicles") from 9 countries including Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, Sénégal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Participants comprised PhD students and more experienced researchers (mentors & supervisors) as well as representatives from government ministries and the private sector, and included team members from all 5 UPGro consortium projects GroFutures, BRAVE, Hidden Crisis, GroForGood, and T-Group. Training focused on the application of the water table fluctuation method for analysing groundwater-level records and was led by GroFutures and The Chronicles Consortium, an international consortium of scientists from across Africa and beyond collating and analysing multi-decadal records of groundwater levels in order to assess the impacts of groundwater use, climate variability and change, and land-use change on groundwater storage across Africa. In addition to addressing key capacity-strengthening goals, the workshop provided a platform for the co-production of knowledge. As a result, a collaborative, pan-African analysis of multi-decadal groundwater-level records is in preparation and a number of participants is expected to contribute their national-scale analyses to an upcoming special section of Hydrogeology Journal. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://grofutures.org/article/pan-african-groundwater-level-analysis-and-training-workshop/ |
| Description | Stakeholders Consultation Engagement |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The group discussed issues around groundwater use, quality and governance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Sustainability of the water supply to Dodoma, Tanzania |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | GroFutures continues to work closely with the WamiRuvu Basin Water Board in Tanzania and DUWASA (Dodoma Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Authority) to assess the sustainability of the Makutapora Wellfield which is the sole, perennial source of safe water to the nation's rapidly growing capital, Dodoma. In strategic planning and policy meeting with DUWASA (Dodoma Urban Water Supply and Sewage Authority) and Ministry of Water & Irrigation held in Morogoro, Tanzania in May 2018 and February 2019, GroFutures has outlined a new monitoring strategy including the construction of new monitoring wells to clarify whether current and projected abstraction are sustainable and options for enhancing wellfield replenishment through Managed Aquifer Recharge. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |