Transboundary aquifers of Africa: Review of the current state of knowledge and progress towards sustainable development and management

Nijsten, Geert-Jan; Christelis, Greg; Villholth, Karen G.; Braune, Eberhard; Gaye, C.B.

doi:10.1016/j.ejrh.2018.03.004

Cited by 39 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Nevertheless, in practice, the promotion of technical cooperation to foster political steps forward is actually in place. For instance, when it comes to transboundary groundwater resources, there is no formal agreement on the groundwater aquifer between Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa, but technical cooperation, promoted also by the UN through UNESCO, is very active and promising [37]. Similarly, the Guarani Aquifer System (GAS), a groundwater basin shared between Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay, shows that even before the ratification of the GAS agreement, bilateral cooperation at the local level was successfully happening, for instance, in the case of the municipalities of Concordia (Argentina) and Salto (Uruguay) [38].…”

Section: Either Operational Arrangement or Nothing?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring Transboundary Water Cooperation in SDG 6.5.2: How a Critical Hydropolitics Approach Can Spot Inequitable Outcomes

2018

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This article contributes to critical sustainability studies through an interrogation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their action towards improving access to water and sanitation. This is done through an analysis of ‘SDG 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all’, specifically focusing on Target 6.5: ‘By 2030, implement integrated water-resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate’, and its related Indicator 6.5.2, ‘Proportion of transboundary basin area with an operational arrangement for water cooperation’. While on paper Target 6.5 might seem relatively unproblematic, this article shows that its implementation could have some unintended practical implications for countries sharing transboundary waters. This article fine-tunes SDG 6.5.2 by suggesting two additional qualitative steps to improve the indicator. These qualitative dimensions are deemed extremely important for two reasons: the first one is the need to unfold and tackle inequitable water agreements; the second reason is to assess, recognize, and promote the role of civil society, NGOs, and technical and informal cooperation as a positive path toward the actual achievement of formal cooperation. The two steps that we propose are deemed essential if the United Nations (UN) is going to include SDG 6.5.2 as a proactive tool in the achievement of “implementing integrated water-resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate”, as declared in the 2030 agenda.

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Section: Either Operational Arrangement or Nothing?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring Transboundary Water Cooperation in SDG 6.5.2: How a Critical Hydropolitics Approach Can Spot Inequitable Outcomes

2018

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“…Governance of transboundary waters is a particular issue in the region because of the number of shared surface and groundwater resources and their potential to generate disputes between states in the region (Nijsten et al, 2018; World Bank, 2018a). In fact, some of the seminal academic works on transboundary waters focused on the hydropolitics of one of the major transboundary rivers of the region, the Nile basin (Waterbury, 1979).…”

Section: Water Issues Facing the Arab Regionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tackling the Trickle: Ensuring Sustainable Water Management in the Arab Region

et al. 2020

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Water scarcity in the Arab region is intensifying due to population growth, economic development, and the impacts of climate change. It is manifested in groundwater depletion, freshwater ecosystem degradation, deteriorating water quality, low levels of water storage per capita, and added pressures on transboundary water resources. High-income Arab countries have sought to circumvent the ever-present challenges of water scarcity through agricultural imports (virtual water trade), desalination, and, increasingly, wastewater reuse. In this review article, we argue that the narrative of water scarcity and supply-side technological fixes masks more systemic issues that threaten sustainable water management, including underperforming water utilities, protracted armed conflict and displacement, agricultural policies aimed at self-sufficiency, evolving food consumption behaviors, the future of energy markets, and educational policy. Water management challenges, particularly on the demand side, and responses in the Arab region cannot be understood in isolation from these broader regional and international political and socioeconomic trends. Recognizing the complex and interdependent challenges of water management is the first step in reforming approaches and shifting to more sustainable development outcomes and stability in the Arab region and beyond.

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“…This is mostly due to difficulties to undertake shared cooperation among policy-makers belonging to the countries involved [68]. As an example, in Africa, only seven aquifers, out of more than 70, are subject to agreements on joint research, monitoring and governance [69]. FREEWAT capabilities were tested at two case studies to deal with this theme in Switzerland/Italy, and Namibia/Botswana/South Africa.…”

Section: Management Of Transboundary Aquifersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial Data Management and Numerical Modelling: Demonstrating the Application of the QGIS-Integrated FREEWAT Platform at 13 Case Studies for Tackling Groundwater Resource Management

Filippis

Pouliaris

Kahuda

et al. 2019

Water

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Because of the spatial nature of groundwater-related data and their time component, effective groundwater management requires the application of methods pertaining to the Information and Communication Technologies sector, such as spatial data management and distributed numerical modelling. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the effectiveness of the QGIS-integrated FREEWAT platform and an approach combining spatial data management and numerical models to target groundwater management issues. FREEWAT is a free and open source platform integrated in a Geographic Information System environment and embedding tools for pre-and post-processing of Water 2020, 12, 41 2 of 31 spatial data and integrating numerical codes for the simulation of the hydrological cycle, with a main focus on groundwater. To this aim, this paper briefly presents the FREEWAT platform, introduces the FREEWAT approach, and showcases 13 case studies in European and non-European countries where the FREEWAT platform was applied. Application of the FREEWAT platform to real-world case studies is presented for targeting management of coastal aquifers, ground-and surface-water interaction, climate change impacts, management of transboundary aquifers, rural water management and protection of groundwater-dependent ecosystems. In this sense, compared to other existing software suites, FREEWAT allows data analysis and visualization to accomplish each step of the modelling workflow, i.e., from data analytics, to conceptual model definition, to numerical modelling and reporting of results. The presented experiences demonstrate that improved access to data and the portability of models and models' results can help to promote water sustainability from the localto the basin-scale. Furthermore, FREEWAT may represent a valuable tool to target the objective of increasing the capabilities of public authorities and private companies to manage groundwater resources by means of up-to-date, robust, well-documented and reliable software, without entailing the need of costly licensing, nowadays seldom affordable by public water authorities. Based on the strengths highlighted, the FREEWAT platform is a powerful tool for groundwater resources management, and for data collection, sharing, implementation and comparison of scenarios, for supporting planning and decision-making.

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Transboundary aquifers of Africa: Review of the current state of knowledge and progress towards sustainable development and management

Cited by 39 publications

References 7 publications

Monitoring Transboundary Water Cooperation in SDG 6.5.2: How a Critical Hydropolitics Approach Can Spot Inequitable Outcomes

Monitoring Transboundary Water Cooperation in SDG 6.5.2: How a Critical Hydropolitics Approach Can Spot Inequitable Outcomes

Tackling the Trickle: Ensuring Sustainable Water Management in the Arab Region

Spatial Data Management and Numerical Modelling: Demonstrating the Application of the QGIS-Integrated FREEWAT Platform at 13 Case Studies for Tackling Groundwater Resource Management

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