Gaborone. March 18 2008 --  The Groundwater and Drought Management Project of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) joins the rest of the world in commemorating the World Water Day on 22 March 2008 with a call for increased awareness on the adverse impacts of sanitation on groundwater resources.
This year’s theme for the World Water Day is sanitation. The United Nations have declared 2008 as the International Year of Sanitation (IYS) to raise awareness for the global sanitation crisis which presents one of the major obstacles to human development in many developing countries.
The SADC Groundwater and Drought Management Project believe that preventing and protecting groundwater from contamination is a key element of sustainable human development in the region.
Although groundwater use is generally less visible than surface water supplies, it increasingly provides the main source of agricultural irrigation in rural areas, as well as a vital safety-net for dry-season food security.
“Groundwater is of particular importance as numerous people in the SADC Member States rely on a combination of hand-dug wells and public boreholes for their drinking water. In urban areas of the region, groundwater is an important source of affordable municipal and private freshwater supplies. Therefore, a lack of improperly designed, or inappropriately sited sanitation facilities pose a threat to the quality of groundwater resources”, said Mr. Philip Beetlestone the Acting Project Manager for the SADC Groundwater and Drought Management Project.
About one-third of the people in the SADC region live in drought-prone areas where groundwater is the primary source of drinking water for the human population, livestock, and most other activities.
Groundwater contamination from sanitation facilities is a serious problem throughout the African continent but not much attention is paid to the problem because of inadequate understanding information on the state of groundwater vulnerability to contamination.
Rapid urbanization within the Southern African region has led to the growth of large areas of unplanned sub-standard housing in the cities, resulting in residents of such areas resorting to groundwater as a source of inexpensive, high-quality domestic water supply.
However, the uncontrolled expansion of this kind of housing, together with increasing sewage and effluent leakage, indiscriminate waste disposal, and uncontrolled industrial and commercial activities have a great potential to contaminate and deteriorate  the quality of groundwater and contribute to mounting public health problems if not properly managed.
It is with this background that the SADC Groundwater and Drought Management Project’s call for increased awareness on the adverse impacts of sanitation on groundwater resources in the region emanate.
The Groundwater and Drought Management Project is one of the initiatives to increase awareness and understanding of groundwater issues of concern in the region to facilitate protection and remedial measures by policymakers, institutions and other stakeholders.

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For more information or to arrange interviews on sanitation and groundwater-related issues contact:
Barbara Lopi - Communications and Events Officer
SADC Groundwater and Drought Management Project
Plot 115, Unit 7b, Kgale Mews, Private Bag 282, Gaborone, Botswana
Phone + 267 3953386; Fax +267 3928349; Email barbaralo@unops.org