UPGro Science: Groundwater can de-risk economic growth [S3]

https://youtu.be/7gFID4h7ytw Although localised groundwater depletion is evident, particularly beneath growing urban centres, there has been no substantial declines in groundwater storage at a basin scale in Africa over the last 15 years and in some areas, there are substantial unused…

Groundwater information for Africa: the Africa Groundwater Atlas – the main online information portal for groundwater for all African countries [K3]

Groundwater has a critical role to play in securing safe water supplies, economic growth and food security in Africa. Groundwater is widespread on the continent, generally of high natural quality, and more resilient to climate variability than surface water. It…

The Ghana National Disaster Management Organisation (NDMO) have benefited from the increased understanding and relevance of groundwater brought by BRAVE [C9]

Mrs Charlotte Norman Climate Change and Adaptation Director of the Ghana National Disaster Management Organisation provided written feedback on the UPGro BRAVE project and highlighted the value brought by involving a broad spectrum of relevant stakeholders, and providing an understanding…

UPGro Hidden Crisis fieldwork done in partnership with WaterAid country teams and with full support of government ministries in Ethiopia, Malawi and Uganda, who adopted the survey reports [C8]

Research conducted in Uganda revealed the high rate of pump corrosion to the poorly galvanized iron pipes used for borehole installation. This has enabled WaterAid to deliver this message to the key stakeholders that can effect change to reduce the…

Rainwatch and farmer radio in Ghana and Burkina Faso is able to connect groundwater users in rural areas with forecasts and other useful information to strengthen their resilience [C7]

https://youtu.be/Gq9etCaG6DU One of the key aspects of supporting groundwater management is being able to cope with changing rainfall patterns. Rainwatch is a simple, open source platform which is owned and managed by National Met Personal from 15 different countries across…

Groundwater Game as an effective tool for stakeholder engagement and collaborative planning [C6]

Building consensus was done with the Groundwater Game in Tanzania to guide groundwater monitoring and management. In Tanzania, the GroFutures research team also engages regularly with users in the Great Ruaha River Sub-Catchment of the Rufiji Basin through it Learning…

Development of understanding and tools for Water Resource Management in West Africa [C4]

The BRAVE project co-developed tools with end-users in West Africa to improve water resource management (WRM) in the face of climate variability and environmental change.  WRM requires sound scientific understanding of water flows and storage; in BRAVE we are improving…

UPGro Impact: Handpump repair times in Kwale, Kenya, brought down from weeks to days. Kenya Water Act 2016 sets the framework for national scaling up. Fundifix business model is influencing the design of other rural water services [D3]

Background Financial sustainability, accessibility and reliability of rural water services is worldwide challenge, particularly in low and middle income countries. Furthermore, globally, 4 out of 5 people who don’t have access to even as basic water supply live in rural…

UPGro Impact: Ministry of Water & Environment, Uganda issues new directive and guidance on handpump materials, and suppliers respond [D2]

Background The SDGs aim for universal access to safely managed water services – a hugely ambitious target for many African countries. In 2015, only 25% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) had access to safely managed water services, and…

UPGro Science: New methods of water point functionality developed and tested [S9]

https://youtu.be/z93SfH9w_fM Water point functionality surveys indicate that new methods for defining and measuring water point functionality are required to adequately monitor progress towards SDG6 for safely managed water services. There are many definitions for water point functionality, which influence whether…