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Arjen gravatar image
WaterAid

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

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No.2 Revision
Cristian Anton gravatar image
WaterAid

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

Arjen