Study Roots For Enhancing Proper Use of Ground Water

By Lilian Museka

Research published this month by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) shows that hundreds of millions of urban people in such countries already depend on this hidden resource.

 “Water taken directly from wells rather than being piped to users from surface-water supplies such as rivers and reservoirs is rarely taken into account, and it is therefore being used invisibly. This might mean that it is being used unsustainably but it might also mean that groundwater has even greater potential to supply poor communities than is currently thought,” the research says. 

 The study titled Groundwater, self supply and poor urban dwellers: A review with case studies of Bangalore and Lusaka, is based on a paper presented from a review of literature sub-substantiated by two case studies of Bangalore, India, and Lusaka, Zambia, carried out by Dr. Jenny Grönwall, a freelance researcher, Mr. Martin Mulenga a senior researcher at IIED and Dr. Gordon McGranahan, head of the Human Settlements Group at IIED.

The research says that hundreds of millions of people in low-income urban settlements rely on wells for drinking and other domestic purposes. However efforts to enhance the quality, reliability and sustainability of these water sources receive little attention, locally and internationally.

It continues to say that the implicit justification is that wells do not provide adequate water, but that little can be done to improve these supplies as they are essentially a residual that needs to be eliminated by the continued expansion of piped water systems.

It estimates that almost a third of urban households in sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia rely on groundwater from local wells, and the share is considerably higher among poorer households.

 It warns that policymakers, donors and others have neglected poor people’s dependence on wells, and  urges action to ensure that people can use groundwater in a safe and sustainable way.

 “The policy trend is to promote the use of piped water but as our research shows, large proportions of urban populations are not served and must supply themselves with groundwater from wells,” says co-author Dr Jenny Grönwall. “Unfortunately most official statistics, including those that measure progress towards the UN Millennium Development Goal on water, fail to acknowledge the value of different kinds of wells.”

 Dr Grönwall adds: “It is critical that the neglect of this resource ends, as research suggests that climate change will make groundwater increase in importance in large parts of the world, not least in the urban areas of developing nations.”

 She says one problem is that the UN Millennium Development Goal system defines wells as being ‘improved’ or ‘unimproved’ when these terms do not reflect real differences in the importance of wells and can in fact condemn vital sources of water.

Meanwhile co-author Dr. Martin Mulenga says that one of the reasons that groundwater gets neglected is an assumption that it is of poor quality or likely to be contaminated, especially if a well is located close to a latrine.

 “It is a misconception that sanitation facilities near wells will automatically cause disease and that such wells deserve to be shut down,” he says adding that, “In reality, transmission routes for harmful microbes are much more complex.”

 The researchers say that, overall, a greater availability of well-water can be better for people’s health as it promotes good hygiene, and not all water used must be of potable standard.

 Dr. Mulenga says household treatment and good hygiene practices such as hand-washing may still need to be promoted to reduce health risks and that Governments and donor agencies should take steps to enable poor communities to use groundwater in a safe and sustainable way, rather than discouraging their use of this resource.

 The researchers call for better monitoring of urban groundwater resources and wells and for groundwater to be included more often in plans and policies for integrated water resource management. Measures to improve recharge of aquifers and to protect both groundwater and wells from pollution are urgent.

“While water privatization and regional water scarcities grab the limelight, this study shows that a large share of the world’s poorest urban dwellers actually depend on local wells,” says Dr McGranahan.

 He says a lot needs to be done to support the efforts of local households and communities, and to make water supplies from wells more reliable and safe. This will be a challenge for water sector organizations more accustomed to working through large utilities and regional water resource authorities.

 The research, which includes extended case-studies of Bangalore, India and Lusaka, Zambia adds that self-supply from local wells can be a cheaper alternative to piped supplies in situations where infrastructure for house connections is unfeasible or too costly.

It however says lack of data about groundwater resources also has implications for climate change research and policy-making. There are general uncertainties due to gaps in knowledge related to water including groundwater, which affect predictions of, for instance, altered precipitation patterns and how this may impact on aquifer recharge under a continuously changing climate.

These uncertainties are critical since the climate system and groundwater storage are fundamental, integrated parts of the hydrological cycle and, in turn, of all life on Earth.

Experienced climate researchers have suggested that global reliable surface water supplies are likely to decrease due to increased temporal variations of river flow, which are in turn caused by increased precipitation variability and decreased snow and ice storage.

 It may therefore be beneficial to take advantage of the storage capacity of aquifers, and plan for increased groundwater withdrawals for different purposes, including urban water supplies.

Climate change in areas affected by reduced (or periods of reduced) river flow may cause an increase in the use of groundwater, both direct and indirect. In this case it is already appropriate to take measures to enhance the recharge of local aquifers and to safeguard their quality.