Mmegi Online: Southern African Development Community (SADC) Groundwater and Drought and Drought Management Project communications and events officer, Barbara Lopi said the direct effect of climate change on groundwater resources depends on the change in the volume and distribution of groundwater recharge. She said that climate change is among the topics to be discussed at a two-day conference on groundwater in the SADC integrated water resources management (IWRM) initiative to be held from 18 to 19 November 18 to 19 in Gaborone.The conference, jointly organised by SADC, the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW) and the German Development Cooperation (GTZ), will discuss groundwater and related issues in the SADC region and develop a framework for the integration of groundwater into the IWRM approach. Lopi said that groundwater resources are likely to be relatively robust in the face of climate change compared with surface water due to the buffering effect of groundwater storage.
Groundwater may have an important role to play in ameliorating the worst effects of climate change on the water environment if managed appropriately. Under natural conditions, groundwater discharge sustains base flow in streams, wetlands and springs, thus climatic changes such as increased drought frequency, or extended dry seasons will increase demand on rural groundwater supplies. Groundwater sources may fail, or not cope with demand. Most at risk are unimproved shallow sources, and low yielding sources, she said. It is also worth noting, she said, that groundwater is the critical underlying resource for human survival and economic development in extensive drought prone areas in large parts of rural Africa. Groundwater resources are much less drought prone than surface water due to large natural storage of aquifers, said Lopi….
Silt spreads from a South-bound water flow into the Okavango Delta in Botswana, shot by Justin Hall, Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License
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