Category: A hidden crisis? Strengthening the evidence base on the sustainability of rural groundwater services

  • How do you solve a problem like a broken water pump?

    World Water Day 2016 article on The Guardian by Katherine Purvis, 22/03/2016 Long considered a symbol of development aid, up to 40% of handpumps in sub-Saharan Africa are broken at any one time. Technology is offering smart solutions. Over the past few decades, the humble handpump has become the go-to option for rural water supply…

  • The magic and mystery of groundwater data

    To be effective, drinking water programmes relying on groundwater need good quality and well managed groundwater data. Unfortunately this is an overlooked, “techy domain”. The presentations and discussants on this webinar explain the typical problems of groundwater data collection, management and use. They draw on first hand examples of: groundwater data use in Uganda and…

  • Stop the Rot – helps us stop the scandal of pump corrosion
    Stop the Rot – helps us stop the scandal of pump corrosion

    This week RWSN/UPGro hosted a webinar on: Overcoming the Rural Water Supply Scandal of Handpump Corrosion (RWSN) – Recording (English) Dépasser le scandale de la corrosion des pompes manuelles dans l’approvisionnement rural en eau (RWSN) – Recording (French) The key points are: handpump corrosion has been known about for 30 years, it is avoidable yet…

  • Overcoming the Rural Water Supply Scandal of Handpump Corrosion

    Handpump corrosion has been known about for over 30 years, the fact that it is a common problem in over 25 countries is a scandal and reflects badly on donors, implementers and governments. In this webinar, Bony Etti and Jacinta Nekesa from WaterAid Uganda describe their shocking findings from investigating boreholes and pumps (as part…

  • Research follow-up: assessing groundwater beneath Africa

    Re-blogged from environmental research web, 6 October 2015 Alan MacDonald and colleagues published their map of African groundwater resources in Environmental Research Letters three years ago; since then there’s been much progress, including the commencement of the UPGro (Unlocking the Potential of Groundwater for the Poor) programme

  • Hidden Crisis: Borehole failure highlighted in Uganda Sector Performance Report
    Hidden Crisis: Borehole failure highlighted in Uganda Sector Performance Report

    The UPGro Hidden Crisis project, led by Prof. Alan MacDonald at BGS, has already made an impact in its first study country – Uganda. Each year, the Ministry of Water and Environment coordinates a Joint Sector Review (JSR) and produces a Sector Performance Report (SPR) which reports on progress in the water and environment sectors…

  • UPGro invited by UNICEF to present at the UN Zaragoza Conference
    UPGro invited by UNICEF to present at the UN Zaragoza Conference

    (with thanks to John Chilton, Sharon Velasquez-Orta and Jose Gesti-Canuto) The UN-Water Annual Zaragoza Conferences serve UN-Water to prepare for World Water Day, which in 2015 will focus on “water and sustainable development” and celebrated the end of the International Decade for Action ‘Water for Life’, so it was especially important for taking stock of…

  • 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…