Gro for GooD: Groundwater Risk Management for Growth and Development

Catalyst Phase →

THE BIG IDEA

Groundwater is essential for economic growth and can contribute to human development if resources are used sustainably to benefit the poor. New approaches need to be found to balances growth and development goals.

RESEARCH AIM / HYPOTHESIS

To develop Groundwater Risk Management Tool that will help government and groundwater users balance the demands of human development and better health, economic growth and groundwater sustainability so that the poorest benefit.

STUDY DESCRIPTION

Africa’s groundwater systems are a critical but poorly understood socio-ecological system. Central to accelerating and sustaining Africa’s development is improved understanding of groundwater risks and institutional responses to competing growth and development goals is needed. Explosive urban growth, irrigated agricultural expansion, industrial pollution, untapped mineral wealth, rural neglect and environmental risks converge to increase the complexity and urgency of groundwater governance across Africa.

The research will focus on tackling the following questions:

1. How can risks to groundwater quality and quantity for drinking water security be identified and reduced?
2. How can groundwater governance be designed to balance growth and development?
3. What are the most significant and uncertain future scenarios affecting sustainable groundwater use for the poor?

The study will focus on the Kwale County area of South East Kenya where the poverty rate is high (7^th most deprived out of 47 Counties in Kenya) and there is intensive use of groundwater for urban water supply, sugar cane irrigation and mining. Tackling the three questions above will involve detailed data collection, including the use of innovative ‘Smart Handpumps’ developed by University of Oxford that measure handpump use. The research brings together rigorous analysis and modelling of environmental, social, economic and governance systems and processes. A risk management tool will be developed and then tested. While sensitive to context of Kwale, the Groundwater Risk Management Tool will be designed to be flexible so that it can be scaled-up across Kenya and can be adapted to other countries and contexts.

RESEARCH ORGANISATIONS

• University of Oxford (OU) – Grant NE/M008894/1
• University of Nairobi (UoN)
• Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT)
• Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
• Rural Focus Ltd. (RFL)

RESEARCH TEAM

OU: Dr Robert Hope (PI), Dr Katrina Charles, Dr David Clifton, Dr Caitlin McElroy, Patrick Thomson, Jacob Katuva, Johanna Koehler, Farah Colchester, Prof David Bradley, Heloise Greeff 
JKUAT: Prof Bancy Mati, Prof John Gathenya.
UoN: Prof Daniel Olago, Julius Odida
UPC: Dr Albert Folch, Dr Daniel Fernàndez-Garcia, Dr Xavier, Sanchez-Vila, Prof Emilio Custodio, Prof Jesus Carrera, Núria Ferrer Ramos
RFL: Michael Thomas, Mike Lane

WORKING IN:

• Kenya

PUBLICATIONS

• Policy Brief: Poverty Transitions in Kwale County
• Policy Brief: How has devolution fared in its first term? Responses from Kwale County at the end of the transition period
• Poster: Groundwater and Poverty: Evidence from Coastal Kenya
• Gro for GooD newsletter 1 2017
• Colchester, F. E. , Marais H. G. , Thomson P., Hope, R., Clifton D. A. (2017) Accidental infrastructure for groundwater monitoring in Africa, Environmental Modelling & Software 91 (2017) 241 – 250
• Gro for GooD newsletter 2 2016
• Thompson, P. & Koehler J. (2016) Performance-oriented Monitoring for the Water SDG – Challenges, Tensions and Opportunities, Aquatic Procedia, Volume 6, August 2016, Pages 87-95
• Thompson P. (2016) Handpump usage changes in response to rainfall, Poster at 2016 UNC Water & Health Conference
• Usemi Wetu – Base Titanium quarterly newsletter (2016) Groundwater Risk Management, Issue 14,  July – September 2016
• First step to understand the importance of new deep aquifer pumping regime in groundwater system in a developing country, Kwale, Kenya  by Nuria Ferrer, Albert Folch, Willy Sasaka, Mike Lane, Calvince Wara, Said Banje, Mike Thomas, Dan Olago, Jacob Katuva, Patrick Thomson, Emilio Custodio and Rob Hope
• GroforGooD Workshop Kenya February 2016
• Gro for GooD newsletter 1 2016
• Thomson P., Greeff H., Colchester F, Clifton D. and Hope R. A.(2015): “Distributed Monitoring of Shallow Aquifer Level using Community Handpumps” Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, Water Programme, August 2015  (work funded by Oxford University’s John Fell fund. Work is continuing under UPGro)
• GRo for GooD Inception Workshop Report | June 2015 | Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.
• Colchester, F.E., Greeff, H., Thomson, P., Hope, R., and Clifton, D.A. (2014). Smart Handpumps: A Preliminary Data Analysis. IET Appropriate Healthcare Technologies (AHT), London, 2014, pp. 1-4.

Presentations from UPGro and related research

• Water Services Maintenance Trust Fund and Water Act 2016 (Susie Goodall & Johanna Koehler)
  • The FundiFix Model (Susie Goodall) [224]
  • FILM: FundiFix in Kenya (Jacob Katuva) [203]

  Implementing the right to water – water policy choices with decentralised politics in Kenya by Johanna Koehler (linked to Gro for GooD)

• Water policy choices in Kenya’s 47 Counties by Johanna Koehler (Gro for GooD, work done under ESRC grant)
• “Financing water infrastructure for sustainable growth”  by Dr Rob Hope (Gro for GooD)
• Do the poor think they are poor? by Jacob Katuva (Gro for GooD)
• Do close election benefit the poor? Water policy choices in a decentralised system by J. Koehler (Gro for GooD, work done under ESRC grant)
• Presenting new insights into the relationship between rainfall and water use using innovative handpump monitoring technology by SP. Thomson (presented by R. Hope) (Gro for GooD)
• Keynote 5: Translating research ideas into water security impacts for the poor in rural Kenya by R. Hope (Gro for GooD)

Related non-UPGro

• Koehler, J., Thomson, P. & Hope, R. (2016). Mobilizing Payments for Water Service Sustainability. In E. Thomas, ed., Broken Pumps and Promises: Incentivizing Impact in Environmental Health. Springer International Publishing, Switzerland, pp. 57-76.
• Koehler, J., Thomson, P. & Hope, R.  (2015). Pump-Priming Payments for Sustainable Water Services in Rural Africa. World Development, Vol. 74, pp. 397-411, 
• Hope, R.A. (2015). Is Community Water Management the Community’s Choice? Implications for Water and Development Policy in Africa. Water Policy.
• From Rights to Results in Rural Water Services – Evidence from Kyuso, Kenya | March 2014 | Dr Rob Hope, Patrick Thomson, Johanna Koehler, Tim Foster and Mike Thomas.