Revision history [back]
Dear Michelle,
It is a very interesting question. We are currently only doing it in a small number of selected projects, mainly in West Africa, though there are developments in East Africa and Pakistan and some examples from India.
It is very difficult to do groundwater level prediction in a meaningful way. We are obviously hampered by lack of long term data - in particular groundwater levels are tricky to obtain and we often depend on data from other sources, such as water regulating bodies, meteorological services etc. Most of our interventions are boreholes, and rest water levels can often only be obtained during construction or during repairs or breakdowns. Those details are often ad hoc and not collected in a structured way.
In Burkina Faso, there are some really good examples of community based water Management - where communities monitor both rainfall and groundwater level. Based on the trends, the community decides how to divide the resource; and place restrictions (e.g. cattle, irrigation etc) if needed. These calculations are estimates, but are typically for the current year. We often are not in a position to do long term, multi year forecasting, as that requires considerable data and more detailed analyses. Vincent Casey can surely provide a more detailed answer.
That said, in Tharparkar district, Pakistan, WaterAid is working with the district to get Water Security plans; based on analyses of existing data from a variety of sources. This initiative is however relatively new. In India, we have developed a number of water security plans(typically 3-4 communities together), which focusses on all water users, and ground water abstractions.
Proper predictive analyses requires modelling, detailed aquifer information, long term rainfall data, etc etc. This unfortunately goes beyond the scope of WaterAid's possibilities and resources.
Hope this helps,
Arjen Naafs
2 |
No.2 Revision
|
|
Dear Michelle,
It
Yours
is a very interesting question. We are currently only doing
it
this
in a small number of selected projects, mainly in West Africa, though there are developments in East
Africa and Pakistan and some examples from India.
It is very difficult to do groundwater level prediction in a meaningful way.
We are obviously hampered by lack of long term data - in particular groundwater levels are tricky
to obtain and we often depend on data from other sources, such as water regulating bodies,
meteorological services etc. Most of our interventions are boreholes, and rest water levels can
often only be obtained during construction or during repairs or breakdowns. Those details are often
ad hoc
ad-hoc
and not collected in a structured way.
In Burkina Faso, there are some really good examples of
community based
community-based
water Management - where communities monitor both rainfall and groundwater level. Based on the
trends, the community decides how to divide the resource; and place restrictions (e.g. cattle,
irrigation
etc)
etc.)
if needed. These calculations are estimates, but are typically for the current year. We often are
not in a position to do long term,
multi year
multi-year
forecasting, as that requires considerable data and more detailed
analyses. Vincent
analyses (Vincent
Casey can surely provide a more detailed
answer.
answer).
That said, in Tharparkar district, Pakistan, WaterAid is working with the district to get
Water Security plans;
water security plans
based on analyses of existing data from a variety of sources. This initiative is however relatively
new. In India, we have developed a number of water security
plans(typically
plans (typically
3-4 communities
together),
together)
which
focusses
focus
on all water users, and ground water abstractions.
Proper predictive analyses requires modelling, detailed aquifer information,
long term
long-term
rainfall
data, etc
data
etc. This unfortunately goes beyond the scope of WaterAid's possibilities and resources.
Hope this helps,
Arjen Naafs