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GABORONE - SADC countries have been called upon to raise the profile of groundwater, as 60 per cent of the region's population especially those living in rural areas depend on it.
Speaking during a two-day SADC conference on groundwater in Gaborone, SADC director of infrastructure and services, Mr Remigious Makumbe called for improvement in management of groundwater, saying while the region was on the right track, more still needed to be done.
The SADC conference in Integrated Water Resources Management Initiative was organised by SADC, the African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW) and the Deutsche fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ).
It discussed the groundwater-related issues in the SADC region and strategised on how to replicate the regional groundwater management initiative into the continent-wide processes on groundwater utilisation and management.
Mr Makumbe said groundwater was also faced with the challenge emanating from climate change which was predicted to increase the variability of rainfall, flow of rivers and levels of lakes, reducing their reliability as sources of freshwater.
Meanwhile, a statement released at the beginning of the conference stated that a number of challenges faced by management of groundwater in the SADC region, among them lack of data and information to support sound policy development and decision making.
The other challenge was inadequate human resources capacity, skills and systems at all levels of groundwater use and management.
There is lack of an understanding of groundwater and an appropriate valuing of its role, benefits and lack of informationas well as its functioning as a critical hydrological and environmental systems component.
The statement stated that another challenge was wide-spread degradation of groundwater and the resulting diminishing of the resource base, mainly as a result of pollution of underlying groundwater in both urban and rural areas.
There is inadequate research to support sustainable development of groundwater drought management resources and absence of legal framework for controlling groundwater development, utilisation and protection.
The region is faced with inadequate skills to manage groundwater vulnerability to climate change and limited knowledge on how to exploit it for agricultural purposes.
Among other challenges, is the need for greater incorporation of groundwater into Integrated Water Resources Management and an understanding the its importance in maintaining surface water systems.
Limited regional capacity in hydrogeology and inadequate private sector capacity in groundwater development, lack of monitoring and inability of water supply provision to keep up with demand are other challenges.
The conference brought together 40 participants with various groundwater related expertise from within the SADC region and other parts of the world to asses ground-water related issues in the sub-region, including best practices, problems, challenges and develop the way forward to ensure that groundwater positively contributes to economic development and poverty alleviation. Botswana Press Agency (BOPA)
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