The latest discovery of a massive reservoir of underground water in Turkana, northern Kenya has the potential to transform the country from its current water deficient status into one of the few water surplus nations in sub-Saharan Africa. This also gives Kenya the opportunity to retain its regional and continental clout. Until the discovery, Kenya had been the most water-scarce country in East Africa, with water availability at only 792 cubic metres per person per year — even lower than arid Somalia, which, at 1,672 cubic metres, is under relatively less water pressure due to its smaller population. Rwanda, too, is facing water scarcity at 977 cubic metres per person per year; Uganda’s availability stands at 2,085 cubic metres, Burundi at 1,553 cubic metres and Tanzania at 2,266 cubic metres per person per year. Hydrologists have set 2,000 cubic metres per person per year as the level where a country is considered water-stressed. Under 1,000 cubic metres, the situation is critical, and the country is considered water-scarce, like Kenya. But last week’s discovery gives Kenya a chance to retain its clout. Africa is the world’s second driest continent after Australia, holding just 9 per cent of global freshwater resources, despite being the second-biggest continent. For African countries, securing water needs is already an urgent priority for governments, and is likely to become even more critical in the face of increased population growth and harsh weather linked to climate change. The aquifer discovered in the Lotikipi basin is believed to hold more than 207 billion cubic metres of fresh water, more than enough to meet the needs of not only inhabitants of Turkana but the whole country. The other smaller aquifers discovered hold about 43 billion cubic metres, bringing the total groundwater discovered to about 250 billion cubic metres. The country’s water usage, according to the Environment, Water and Natural Resources Ministry, stands at around three billion cubic metres per year, only about 1.2 per cent of the amount of water discovered. The continent is endowed with large and often under-utilised aquifer resources, predominantly in the large shared sedimentary systems of the Sahara and Central and Southern Africa. Aquifer resources often represent the only source of drought security and life sustenance for large populations in arid and semi-arid areas. The biggest aquifer in Africa is the Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System which lies under virtually all of Egypt, much of eastern Libya, and significant areas of northern Chad and northern Sudan. The aquifer provides much of the water in these desert countries, particularly in Libya, which hardly has any surface water at all — 95 per cent of the water Libya needs comes from the ground. In the vast Algerian Sahara, people for thousands of years have been digging wells and connecting the wells by tunneling canals under the desert rock, creating a vast system of underground man-made rivers. According to the Africa Water Atlas 2012 published by the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep), estimates vary on the amount of water that the Nubian aquifer holds, with the lower estimate being a massive 150 trillion cubic metres — 600 times as big as the Turkana find. But the Nubian aquifer is as finite as an oil well — the water seeped into the ground when the Sahara was much wetter, about 20,000-25,000 years ago, but no significant refilling of the aquifer is happening under today’s climate conditions. According to Unep, experts generally agree that the system has not been in equilibrium for thousands of years and that groundwater levels were already declining well before artificial extraction began. Today, drawing water from the system can be considered “water mining,” or a rate that exceeds recharge. The “fossil water” in the Nubian aquifer could run dry in as little as 100 years, according to some estimates. Although aquifers are a source of excellent quality water because of their isolation from surface pollution, and repeated filtering of water through many rock layers, there is a lack of legal frameworks to regulate their management, even though they often extend across the boundaries of many states. And although in Africa there are detailed estimates of the water resources of rivers shared by two or more countries, no equivalent estimates exist for transboundary aquifers. But managing these resources is critical. Underground water is recharged by surface water, which relies on forests. But the water towers in many aquifer recharge zones are threatened by accelerated land degradation and climate change. Furthermore, over-extraction is causing many aquifers to dry up around the world. In Punjab, the water table has dropped by 10 metres since 1973 and the rate of decline is accelerating on both the Indian and the Pakistani sides of the region. It is a similar story for the northwestern Sahara aquifer system, shared by Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, where water extraction increased ninefold between 1950 and 2008. In 2010, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, which share the Guarani aquifer, took the proactive step of being among the first countries to sign a treaty to protect a trans-boundary aquifer, a move which was welcomed by environmentalists. The Kenyan government has set aside Ksh8 billion ($94 million) in the current financial year to implement irrigation projects throughout the country.
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 11:48:40 +0000
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