Groundwater Management

Africa Groundwater Atlas >> Resource pages >> Groundwater Management

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Managing groundwater sustainably is critical to ensuring the long-term supply of good quality groundwater supplies. Groundwater management is a huge topic. These pages provide an introduction to the key concepts around groundwater management, and links to supporting resources, with particular reference to Africa.

Organisations supporting groundwater management in Africa

Many organisations are involved with groundwater resource management, and provide useful resources to support groundwater management. Some of these have a global remit, and some are focussed on Africa.

The Groundwater management organisations page provides an overview of some of the key organisations with resources to support groundwater management, with particular focus on Africa.

Groundwater use in Africa

Groundwater is widely used across Africa, but there are no comprehensive estimates of how much groundwater is used, and for what purposes.

The Groundwater use page gives information on some of the main sources of available information on groundwater use in Africa.

Groundwater data

Groundwater data refers to measured physical or chemical information on groundwater. It includes both groundwater monitoring data, collected over time, and one-off measurements, often collected during borehole drilling, construction and initial testing.

The groundwater data page provides an overview of groundwater data, with a particular focus on Africa; and links to further information and to available sources of groundwater data for Africa.

Groundwater monitoring

Monitoring the state of groundwater resources is a key part of overall groundwater management, and monitoring data is essential to assess the quantity and quality of groundwater. Monitoring data is collected over time, and can include physical data - usually groundwater levels and groundwater abstraction volumes - and chemical data, on groundwater quality.

The Groundwater monitoring page introduces key concepts and resources relating to groundwater monitoring in general and in Africa in particular.

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