Currently, millions of people across the
globe don’t have safe water to drink. As
climate change continues to wreak havoc,
communities will see their homes and means
of survival washed away, their drinking water
contaminated or dry up, their crops wither
and fail, their health devastated by infectious
diseases, and their children forced out of school.
Communities need sustainable and safe water
and sanitation to have the best chance of
combatting the devastating impacts of extreme
weather, like heatwaves, droughts and floods. Yet
one in four people across the globe do not have
safely managed water in their homes.
However, new analysis by the British Geological
Survey (BGS) and WaterAid, reveals that many
countries in Africa – including most parts of subSaharan Africa – and parts of Asia, have enough
water to meet everyone’s daily needs. And this
hidden resource is often right under our feet –
groundwater.
Groundwater – which exists almost everywhere
underground, in gaps within soil, sand and
rock – has the potential to save hundreds of
thousands of lives and be the world’s insurance
policy against climate change.
It would help communities cope with slow onset
climate impacts like drought and irregular rainfall,
and provide broader resilience after floods by
ensuring there is safe water available for all.
But groundwater will only be able to lessen
the impacts of climate change if it is carefully
managed and if we invest in mechanisms to
ensure that it gets to the people who need it
most. All too often, this is not the case.
In some regions, there isn’t enough investment
in the services needed to find, capture, treat,
manage and distribute groundwater – so it
remains largely untouched. In others, we see
rampant over-extraction with far too much
groundwater being used, particularly by the
agricultural sector. In both cases, only a limited
amount of this life-saving resource gets to those
who need it most.
BGS and WaterAid assessed data on the amount of
groundwater there is, how quickly it is replenished
by rain, and how much the rocks can store.
Our experts concluded that, on a national
level, most countries in Africa have sufficient
groundwater for people to not only survive,
but to thrive. This includes countries such as
Ethiopia and Madagascar, where only half the
population have clean water close to home,
and large parts of Mali, Niger and Nigeria.
Although, on a sub-national level, there
are some places where groundwater is
more difficult to get to or is contaminated,
our research estimated that today’s total
groundwater on the continent could provide
people with enough drinking water for at least
five years in the event of a drought – and in
some cases even decades.
This calculation is based on 130 litres of
domestic water use a day per capita, which
would provide people with more than enough
to drink, cook and wash with.i
What’s more, as groundwater is below the
surface, it is more resilient to extreme weather
than other water sources – such as lakes, rivers,
streams and dams – and is largely protected
from evaporation and less susceptible to
pollution.
This means that even if our weather becomes
more extreme and unpredictable, there is
enough groundwater stored in aquifersii to
provide a buffer for many years to come for
the millions of people living on the frontline of
climate change. For them, daily life is already a
struggle simply because they do not have access
to sustainable and safe water and sanitation