Groundwater

Impact on the ground

SRK Consulting was awarded an open tender by the South African Development Community Groundwater Management Institute (SADC-GMI) to design a new five-year programme and create an environmental and social management framework.

By Kirsten Kelly

Drilling of a highyielding borehole SADC-GMI’s core mandate is to promote sustainable groundwater management and provide solutions to groundwater challenges across the SADC region.

Darryll Kilian, partner and principal environmental consultant at SRK Consulting, says that he was excited to work on this project because of the value it would bring: “According to SADC-GMI, 70% of the 250 million people living in Southern African countries rely on groundwater as their primary source. This is especially prevalent in rural areas, but many urban areas in the region, such as Windhoek and Walvis Bay in Namibia, solely rely on groundwater too.

“Despite this statistic, groundwater is seldom managed correctly because it is rarely seen as a resource. It is often managed separately from surface water – even though these two resources are linked as part of the overall hydrological cycle. Groundwater is usually unmeasured and unmanaged, leaving those dependent on the resource vulnerable,” he explains.

Managing the resource The demand for water is expected to rise due to a growing population, changing lifestyle patterns and climate. If well managed, groundwater in Southern Africa could ensure long-term water supply to meet the increasing demands brought by climate variability.

While groundwater is an abundant resource in the region, its potential remains subdued by an inadequate amount of data on aspects of availability, quality, quantity and abstraction. The limited capacity to predict hydrogeological behaviour and water resource development in sufficient detail over long

periods of time affects the extent to which groundwater is appreciated and, therefore, managed.

Although there was good understanding of aquifer systems at a regional level, information systems to manage groundwater data were disparate. In response to this, SADC-GMI collaborated with the International Groundwater Resource Assessment Centre and the IHE Delft Institute for Water Education for groundwater data collection and management in the region. Together, they have developed the SADC hydrogeology map and the SADC Groundwater Information Portal.

Natasha Anamuthoo, senior environmental consultant, SRK Consulting, says this data is valuable and will aid in understanding the different groundwater sources and where to build capacity: “When you have up-to-date resource information, it is easier to predict potential borehole yields and the impact of any projects on surrounding users.

“SADC-GMI conducts a wide variety of different projects such as borehole installations, the monitoring of aquifers and the restoration of borehole infrastructure. In just about all of these projects, there is a critical need to understand the resource. Maps and data are vital to the success of any groundwater project,” she asserts.

Kilian adds that pump testing is also important to ensure sustainable supply: “Pump testing is pumping a borehole at a specified rate and recording the water level and, therefore, the drawdown. From all of these readings, one can determine the yield and if the borehole will be a viable source for the surrounding area.”

Complexity Drilling boreholes can be expensive. “Most of them are needed in rural areas that are difficult to access and where there is no piped water. Transport costs are high, and the rigs can break down. Then there is still a chance that a viable source of water may not be found, so stakeholder expectations must be managed. This is particularly difficult because water is a basic human right and, very often, we are dealing with people who desperately need that borehole, who walk for kilometres a day to access water,” explains Kilian.

Another complexity can occur with transborder aquifers. These are aquifers that straddle more than one country or political jurisdiction. When working on a transboundary aquifer project, one typically has to deal with different (and sometimes competing) hydrogeological, environmental, socio-economic, legislative and governance issues, as well as project time frames.

“One country may rely on a transboundary aquifer while a different country could be exploiting the same aquifer. While our environmental and social management framework will provide a basis from which to align the elements between two different countries/political regions, as well as streamlining the process, SADC possesses mechanisms to resolve a dispute,” adds Anamuthoo.

Due to the fact SADC-GMI is a regional institute, transboundary aquifers are one of the focus areas in its new five-year programme. The management of transboundary aquifers continues to demand a multifaceted enabling policy that removes the current constraints in legal and institutional capacity.

Capacity building with the new five-year programme All SADC-GMI projects have a monitoring phase where each project’s success is evaluated throughout the project life cycle. The information derived (and lessons learned) from this monitoring is being used in SADC-GMI’s next five-year programme to improve the success rate of new projects and build on existing projects. It is crucial to consolidate all learnings from the pilot projects, which could potentially be upscaled.

When SRK was developing the new five-year programme, SADC-GMI was insistent that the programme be focused on fewer targeted components: • capacity building and strengthening for sustainable groundwater management • knowledge development and raising awareness • building resilient and inclusive livelihoods. Anamuthoo states: “SADC-GMI aims to strengthen people’s livelihoods. Groundwater is not only used for drinking and sanitation, but also to support livelihoods, agriculture, ecosystem health and industrial growth. If someone is constrained by a lack of basic access to water, how can they even think of opening a business? Overall, I would say that the new five-year plan is geared towards creating as much impact on the ground as possible.”

To bolster capacity building, SADC-GMI will continue to support established national focal groups in the SADC region, and encourage the use of training manuals – for operating and maintaining groundwater infrastructure, as well as for preparing proposals to access groundwater infrastructure funding.

Rural water supply in eMalahleni Local Municipality Natasha Anamuthoo (left), senior environmental consultant, SRK Consulting, and Darryll Kilian, partner and principal environmental consultant, SRK Consulting