Most detailed maps yet of Africa’s groundwater

Institute of Physics via Environmental Research Letters: A scattergun approach to borehole drilling in Africa is likely to be unsuccessful. This is the message from a group of UK researchers who have, for the first time, quantified the amount, and potential yield, of groundwater across the whole of Africa.

They estimate the total volume of groundwater to be around 0.66 million km3 – more than 100 times the available surface freshwater on the continent – and hope that the assessment can inform plans to improve access to water in Africa, where 300 million people do not have access to safe drinking water. The results have been published today, 20 April, in IOP Publishing’s journal Environmental Research Letters.

The researchers, from the British Geological Survey and University College London, warn that high yielding boreholes will not be found using a scattergun approach and a more careful and exploratory approach that takes into account local groundwater conditions will be needed, which they hope their new study will encourage.

Their results show that in many populated areas in Africa, there is sufficient groundwater to supply hand pumps that communities can use for drinking water. These hand pumps can deliver around 0.1-0.3 litres per second....

The oasis of Tergit in Adrar, Mauritania, shot by Ji-Elle, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported