A hidden crisis: strengthening the evidence base on the sustainability of rural groundwater supplies: results from a pilot study in Uganda

Extending and sustaining access to rural water supplies remains central to improving the health and livelihoods of poor people, particularly women, in Africa, where 400 million rural inhabitants have no form of utility provided water, and universal access to water hinges on accelerated development of groundwater (UN 2013). The ‘future proofing’ of groundwater investments is therefore vital, especially in the context of global and local trends including demographic shifts, environmental impacts of human activity and climate change (Taylor et al. 2013). The emphasis, in recent years, on accelerating access to new infrastructure has obscured a hidden crisis of failure. More than 30% of sources are non‐functional within a few years of construction (Rietveld et al. 2009, RWSN 2009, Lockwood et al. 2011) and a greater number are seasonal (for example 50% in Sierra Leone) (MoEWR 2012). The accumulated costs to governments, donors, and, above all, rural people, are enormous. The original benefits generated by the new infrastructure – improved health, nutrition, time savings, education, particularly for the poorest – are lost if improved services cannot be sustained. The cumulative effect of rural water supply failure in Africa over the past 20 years has been estimated by the World Bank to represent a lost investment in excess of $1.2 billion. Critically, there is limited data or analysis on why sources are non‐functional and therefore little opportunity to learn from past mistakes. This report provides a summary of the work undertaken by the UK‐funded UPGro research programme ('Unlocking the Potential for Groundwater for the Poor') for sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA) funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DfID). The Catalyst Grant project ‘A Hidden Crisis’ was aimed at developing a methodology and toolbox to investigate the causes of failure in groundwater‐based water services in SSA, which could form the foundation for more substantial and larger‐scale research in the future to develop a statistically significant evidence base to examine water point functionality and the underlying causes of failure across a range of physical, social, institutional and governance environments in SSA. To test the toolbox and methodology developed, a pilot study was conducted in northeast Uganda Overall, the approach and methods developed in the catalyst project have been shown to make a significant step towards developing a replicable and robust methodology which can be used to generate a systematic evidence base for supply failure. The work has gone a significant way to encapsulating the complexity of the interlinked aspects of the problem, balancing the natural science and engineering (“technical”) aspects of the research with those concerning the ability of communities to manage and maintain their water points (the “social” aspects). The multiplicity of interlinked causes of water point failure was explicitly acknowledged and taken into account through the use of multi‐disciplinary field and analytical methods within the toolbox and in selection of the research team. The multi‐disciplinary methods of investigation used were highly practical and appropriate to the information sought, and based on detailed observational science

A hidden crisis: strengthening the evidence base on the current failure of rural groundwater supplies

New ambitious international goals for universal access to safe drinking water depend critically on the ability of development partners to accelerate and sustain access to groundwater. However, available evidence (albeit fragmented and methodologically unclear) indicates >30% of new groundwater-based supplies are non-functional within a few years of construction. Critically, in the absence of a significant systematic evidence base or analysis on supply failures, there is little opportunity to learn from past mistakes, to ensure more sustainable services can be developed in the future. This work presents a new and robust methodology for investigating the causes of non-functionality, developed by an interdisciplinary team as part of a UK-funded development research project. The approach was successfully piloted within a test study in NE Uganda, and forms a basis for future research to develop a statistically significant systematic evidence base to unravel the underlying causes of failur

Developing groundwater for secure rural water supplies in Africa

In sub-Saharan Africa 85% of those without access to safe water live in rural areas where the consequent poverty and ill health disproportionately affect women and children. The widespread development of groundwater is the most affordable and sustainable way of improving access to secure water for the rural poor on the scale required to achieve current coverage targets. However, groundwater resources vary considerably across the continent, and the sustainable development of the resource depends on an accurate understanding of the hydrogeology. To develop secure water supplies, the quantity, quality and sustainability of groundwater resources must be known to ensure that key decisions are informed by knowledge of resource conditions. Communities must also be involved at every stage of the process and given the authority to manage and maintain sources. There is a danger that the current pressure to achieve ambitious coverage targets will result in short cuts being taken and, although many new sources are constructed, they will not be secure

Avoiding gypsum geohazards : guidance for planning and construction

This information details the occurrence and characteristics of the rock and mineral gypsum, its highly soluble nature and the types of problems associated with it. These include subsidence, which can affect all construction including buildings, roads, railways and canals. Water leakage beneath dams is also described along with the aggravation of dissolution and subsidence caused by water abstraction. The financial losses caused by gypsum geohazards can be large and considerable cost savings can be generated by avoidance planning and the use of protective construction measures such as those detailed. This report is has been prepared for planners, geologists and geotechnical engineers, throughout the world, to raise their awareness of gypsum geohazard problems and to help with local and national planning

Ethiopia : water security and drought

A map showing groundwater availability during drought for Ethiopia presented at a scale of 1:3,500,000. The map was constructed by combining three factors: (1) rock permeability (derived from the hydrogeology map) (2) the ability of the rock to store water (from the hydrogeology map) (3) recharge to the groundwater (estimated from rainfall data). Areas of high permeability, high storage and high recharge have most groundwater available during drough

The struggle for water: drought, water security and rural livelihoods

Drought is a recurring event in Africa. The recent drought, affecting large swathes of eastern and southern Africa, is not exceptional. For many, drought is associated with food insecurity: rains fail; crops wither; food supplies dwindle; entitlement to food declines and people go hungry. The response, on the part of government and donors, is typically food aid ‘to save lives’. Yet food insecurity is not the only concern during drought, and is not an isolated concern. One of the principal aims of this report – a synthesis of over four years’ research – is to show how livelihoods are affected by declining access to food and water, with access to both linked in a number of important ways. Implications for policy, to protect livelihoods before lives are threatened, are highlighted. The report begins with a description of the evolution and scope of the project ‘Groundwater drought early warning for vulnerable areas’, and the rationale for working in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Chapter 2 then reviews key lessons learned from the 1991 – 92 southern Africa drought and, in particular, discusses which measures and policies were effective in meeting the water needs of rural populations. The Ethiopia study is described in more detail in Chapter 3, in terms of the methodology used for site selection, mapping and fieldwork exercises. Background information on the physical and socioeconomic characteristics of the area is also presented. Chapter 4 then discusses key findings, focussing on the mapping approach to water reliability-availability differentiation, and the village-level survey approach to water security analysis. Policy implications for water supply development and drought planning in Ethiopia are also discussed. Chapter 5 then pulls together (a) findings from the Ethiopia study, with (b) lessons learned from the 1991 – 92 southern Africa drought, and (c) more recent work on water and sustainable livelihoods, to make recommendations on drought planning, early warning, and development programmes more generally available. KEY MESSAGED 1. The impact of drought and the nature of livelihood vulnerability Droughts affect livelihoods in a number of different ways, cutting across sector perspectives and disciplines. Yet in many countries drought management − or more typically relief − focuses almost exclusively on the question of food needs. Other dimensions of vulnerability receive much less attention despite evidence that factors such as access to secure water can be a major problem. This reflects the organisation and remit of government and donor bureaucracies, rather than livelihood realities. Fundamental to understanding water security is an analysis of water availability, access and use. 2. Interdependencies between food and water security: Food and water security are related. Food security, for example, is an outcome of a set of vulnerabilities, dependent on how people gain access to production and exchange opportunities. This, in turn, is influenced by the broad expenditure, in time, labour or money, invested by households in gaining access to water. In many rural environments, moreover, domestic water is a production input, in garden irrigation, livestock watering, brewing and brick-making. Water insecurity can, therefore, affect − directly and indirectly − wider household production and income earning opportunities, as well as the quality and quantity of water consumption. 3. The need to incorporate an understanding of drought preparedness and early warning Maps depicting groundwater availability under drought conditions provide useful awareness raising and planning tools. At a national scale, however, they cannot provide the kind of local-level information on water availability, access and use that is necessary to plan water supply projects, or identify vulnerable groups. Investment in regional mapping, combined with local water security assessment, would provide both. By widening the scope of existing local-level food and/or poverty assessments to include simple indicators of water security, a clearer picture of livelihood security, and the interventions needed to support it, could be gained at little extra cost. Water supply interventions – rehabilitation, repair, well deepening, help with water transport – coordinated with food security/ asset rebuilding efforts, could help sustain income, production and consumption in the early stages of drought, or in the aftermath of a bad year

Preliminary results from a Water Economy and Livelihoods Survey (WELS) in Nigeria and Mali, sub-Saharan Africa : investigating water security across a rainfall transect

A large proportion (47%) of people in sub-Saharan Africa live without access to safe water sources in rural areas (JMP, 2008). The need for sustainable development and management of water resources, particularly groundwater resources, remains a major priority, especially within the context of climate variability, population growth and pressures to increase food production (UN, 2000, Vörösmarty et al., 2000, JMP, 2008, MacDonald and Calow, 2010). In stark contrast to food scarcity, to date little systematic data collection has been done to investigate the role water scarcity has on livelihoods within rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly during droughts or periods of water stress (Calow et al., 2009). A water, livelihoods and economy survey in West Africa was conducted as part of a one year DFID-funded research programme, aimed at improving understanding of the impacts of climate change on groundwater resources and local livelihoods http://www.bgs.ac.uk/GWResilience/. The main purpose of this survey was to investigate the access to and domestic use of a range of water sources (hand pumps, wells, springs, surface water sources and rainwater harvesting) within rural communities across a rainfall transect in sub-Saharan Africa. The seasonal water use and scarcity/stress patterns were investigated for rural communities, located on both sedimentary and basement settings, using community discussions and questionnaires based on a scaled down version of the WELS methodology (Coulter, 2010). Plate 1 shows a WEL survey being carried out in the Minna study area, central Nigeria. The aim of this study is to investigate seasonal access to water supplies, by gathering information on the time taken to collect water, the different sources available at different times of year (wet and dry season) and the geological and hydrogeological conditions at each community. The hypothesis is that having a greater number of groundwater dependent water supplies in a community increases overall security of water access and reduces the time taken to collect water in the dry season. A secondary aim was to test whether a slimmed down WELS methodology based on that described by Coulter and Calow (2011) can be effectively applied to give useful information