ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Nearly half of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa is in a state of severe and chronic poverty. Lack of access to safe domestic water, and indeed to significant quantities of water for other productive uses, defines and contributes to that poverty. Between one-third and one half a billion people in the region rely on unprotected and protected groundwater sources for their domestic water requirements. Further targeted development of groundwater could make a major contribution to the Millennium Development target of halving the proportion of people without access to safe and sustainable water supplies by 2015, as well as contributing significantly to incomes and livelihoods. Extending access to groundwater will be assisted by (a) significantly reducing the costs of mechanised borehole drilling and construction, (b) promoting very low cost drilling technologies in niche hydrogeological environments, preferably through the indigenous private sector, and (c) ensuring the functional sustainability of groundwater abstraction points so constructed. The development of groundwater for poverty alleviation must take account of people’s requirements for domestic, agricultural and small-scale industrial water; the importance of building on user need, demand and initiative; water supply as a permanent service, not merely a shortterm issue of construction and access targets; and the importance of generating far more detailed hydrogeological understanding in the region, through mapping, monitoring and groundwater data collection.
