Author: RWSN Secretariat

  • ODI/UPGro “Groundwater, poverty and development” videos now online

    If you missed the UPGro event at the ODI in London last month, or want to re-live it, the video recordings of the event are now available online on the ODI website: http://www.odi.org/events/4037-groundwater-poverty-development#audiovideo Again, many thanks to the ODI for being such fantastic host

  • “When wells run dry” Prof. Richard Taylor writes in Nature

    “A global analysis reveals growing societal dependence on the use of non-renewable freshwater resources that depletes groundwater reserves and undermines human resilience to water scarcity in a warming world” Full article available for Nature subscribers (paywall): Nature, 516, 179–180, (11 December 2014) doi:10.1038/516179a In the short article, Prof. Taylor raises concern about groundwater depletion, as…

  • A tale of two cities: How can we provide safe water for poor people living in African cities?
    A tale of two cities: How can we provide safe water for poor people living in African cities?

    Dan Lapworth, Jim Wright and Steve Pedley are working to find out. Reproduced from Planet Earth Winter 2014, p 22-23 Across much of Africa, cities are growing quickly. Current projections estimate that by 2050, 60 per cent of the population will be living in urban areas – half of them in slums. Many of these…

  • Africa Groundwater Research

    9th December 2014 [PDF] Water for Wajir [PDF] Hidden Crisis – handpump failure in Uganda In this webinar, Jan de Leeuw presented his project’s work in developing and using a decision-support tool to enable a municipality to quantify the risk of developing a major new groundwater source from the Merti Aquifer, in Kenya. John Chilton…

  • UPGro Consortium Projects Announced

    The next phase of UPGro research has been set in motion with the announcement of which research teams and projects will be funded over the next five years.  The competition was fierce and many fantastic ideas didn’t make it – but we sincerely hope that other research funders will take note and provide support. Five…

  • New IGRAC film explains why groundwater is so essential – in 3 minutes
    New IGRAC film explains why groundwater is so essential – in 3 minutes

    This importance of programmes like UPGro is emphasised in this new animated short from IGRAC (International Groundwater Resources Assessment):

  • Mapping Groundwater Quality for Decision-Makers

    25 November 2014 In this webinar, Pauline Smedley from the British Geological Survey presents the work done to get a better understanding of the occurance of high natural fluoride in the groundwater of the Ethiopian Rift Valley. High fluoride damages teeth and bones, particularly in children, but there are limited alternate source of water. Dr…

  • Do you trust your gut instinct?

    This blog post, for the ARIGA Catalyst Project, was originally published as part of the ‘Talking Science’ and Water, Land and Ecosystems Blog .  Making better development decisions with decision analysis tools Making decisions is difficult. Most of us spend a lot of time procrastinating about decisions in our everyday lives, struggling to weigh pros…

  • How to… design roads for water harvesting and groundwater recharge
    How to… design roads for water harvesting and groundwater recharge

    Roads can devastate a landscape – scarring it, creating barriers for wildlife and accelerating stormwater so that valuable farmland, habitats and homes get washed away or polluted. What if didn’t have to be that way? What if roads would work with the grain of nature rather than against it? One of the UPGro teams, lead…

  • Groundwater Recharge

    21 October 2014 [PDF presentation] Groundwater Recharge: will the pumps run dry? [PDF presentation] Rural Roads for Recharge