ABSTRACT

Groundwater for Sustainable Livelihoods and Equitable Growth explores how groundwater, often invisibly, improves peoples’ lives and livelihoods. This unique collection of 19 studies captures experiences of groundwater making a difference in 16 countries in Africa, South America and Asia. Such studies are rarely documented and this book provides a rich new collection of interdisciplinary analysis. The book is published in colour and includes many original diagrams and photographs.

Spring water, wells or boreholes have provided safe drinking water and reliable water for irrigation or industry for millennia. However, the hidden nature of groundwater often means that it’s important role both historically and in the present is overlooked. This collection helps fill this knowledge gap, providing a diverse set of new studies encompassing different perspectives and geographies. Different interdisciplinary methodologies are described that can help understand linkages between groundwater, livelihoods and growth, and how these links can be threatened by over-use, contamination, and ignorance.

Written for a worldwide audience of practitioners, academics and students with backgrounds in geology, engineering or environmental sciences; Groundwater for Sustainable Livelihoods and Equitable Growth is essential reading for those involved in groundwater and international development.

chapter

Introduction

Groundwater, sustainable livelihoods and equitable growth

chapter Chapter 4|18 pages

Urban development and intensive groundwater use in African coastal areas

The case of Lomé urban area in Togo

chapter Chapter 7|12 pages

Stubble burning in northwestern India

Is it related to groundwater overexploitation?

chapter Chapter 8|23 pages

Groundwater recharge through landscape restoration and surface water harvesting for climate resilience

The case of upper Tekeze river basin, Northern Ethiopia

chapter Chapter 9|19 pages

The Quaternary aquifer

An affordable resource to address water scarcity in the northern part of the Lake Chad basin

chapter Chapter 11|17 pages

The governance and water security of groundwater obtained from private domestic wells in periurban areas in Brazil

A case study on the Guandu river basin in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

chapter Chapter 12|17 pages

Groundwater policy, legal and institutional framework situation analysis

Gaps and action plan: the case of Malawi

chapter Chapter 13|22 pages

Groundwater

A juggernaut of socio-economic development and stability in the arid region of Kachchh

chapter Chapter 15|20 pages

Valuing groundwater use

Resolving the potential of groundwater in the Upper Great Ruaha River Catchment of Tanzania

chapter Chapter 16|20 pages

Conjunctive use of surface and groundwater

Operational and water management strategies to build resilience, water security, and adaptation

chapter Chapter 17|21 pages

The role of groundwater in rural water supply

The case of six villages of Taunggyi District, Southern Shan State, Myanmar

chapter Chapter 18|10 pages

Groundwater-driven paddy farming in West Bengal

How a smallholder-unfriendly farm power policy affects livelihoods of farmers