The digging of fountainhead in Africa has often been thought of as the solvent to helping rural woman walking to get water , but they may do more hurt than good .
NGOs oftenpuntthe excavation of well as the solvent to the recollective distances charwoman in rural areas travel to hoard water . These H. G. Wells do improve thequality of life , but care take to be take in get the picture them as they could lead to the over - exploitation of aquifers .
It is true that wells have been advocated because they are well-to-do to utilise , and because of the perception that groundwater is omnipresent . Also , the toll of sinking a well in comparing to other water supply base isminimal .
But theInternational Institute for Environment and Developmenthas sound out that up to US$ 360 million has been spent on rural water supply supplying schemes which are nowdysfunctional . This equates to or so 50,000 water points or bit of base that have been installed and no longerwork .
In Bangladesh , for example , NGOs have pushed for wells to be toil . But recentresearchsuggests that human modification to the landscape painting , the structure of ponds , and the adoption of irrigated agriculture are responsible for a pattern of increased arsenic concentration underground .
Added to this is the problem of unsustainable extraction . This assume place through a myriad of way of life . The event can be withering .
woefully this is the only piddle mass in the region have . They are forced to toast it and endure from callouses on their hand and feetcaused bythe arsenous oxide .
A similar post occurred in a small South African townsfolk a few years ago . study completed in the area discover a downslope in groundwater levels by as much as 25 metres over a full stop of 20 years due to unsustainableextraction . The situation was so dire that calls were made for the great unwashed go across through to enchant water into the township .
The Cinderella of water resources
Aquifers across Africa are critical for potable water supplying and help contribute as much as 70 % of the total piddle provision in somecountries . The direction of these is critical .
For example , groundwater supplies the majority of small towns in South Africa , yet almost none of the municipalities employ a hydrogeologist on a full - timebasis . This has led to the misdirection of the subsurface water reserve and , in certain instance , the deterioration of groundwater caliber and mining of aquifer .
A number of technical gene need to be taken into history on a situation by site fundament to ensure that groundwater is press out sustainably .
It is a common misconception that when we exercise , we tap into a riverunderground . This is not the showcase .
undercoat water move slowly through , or is store in , permeable rocks called aquifer . An aquifer may be a layer of almost any sort of gravel , guts or rock that has spaces between the stoma able to hold wet . The connectivity of these pores and the size of the pore , or cavity , will determine the power to extract water from the subsurface .
There is a sheath to be made for and against using underground water . But monitoring is vital . The problem is that monitoring stations are regularly closed down and less data point is available to deal theresource .
The situation becomes decisive when emergency provision are demand and the groundwater reserve are capable to fill again the already depleted surface water reserves . When the indigence arise , the machinelike response is to pump groundwater to supplement surface water , but without the necessary management and monitoring systems in place .
Working together for water
A decentralised approach to manage the resource has been taken in sure African countries . For object lesson , in West Africa , money is collected regularly from the users of a supplying well in a village to avail finance the sustenance of the well .
This approach does n’t always act . The International Institute for Environment and Development has designate that nepotism is rife and the misdirection of finance on such a diminished scale iscommon .
In essence , a more co - ordinated drive is required which involves government activity , NGOs , academia and the private sphere to sustainably develop and manage groundwater . This imply thatlicensing , as subsist in South African legislation , is require prior to sinking a well or borehole for body of water provision or irrigation purposes .
Gaathier Mahedis a Hydrogeologist , Researcher and Senior Lecturer atCape Peninsula University of Technology .
This clause was in the beginning publish onThe Conversation . take theoriginal article .
Image byUSAID U.S. Agency for International Developmentunder Creativ Commons permit .
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