Groundwater management in drought-prone areas of Africa

The issues pertaining to groundwaterdrought are reviewed with particular regard to the historical and present situations in Malawi, northern Ghana and the Northern Province of South Africa. These three quite different examples highlight some of the major difficulties facing respective governmentsand donor agencies, not least the shortcomingsof drought-reliefdrilling programmes,the general lack of routine monitoring and the need for longer term analysis and assessment of groundwatersystems than is currently possible. The distinct character of groundwater systems and their reaction to prevailing and changing environmentalconditions is discussed, and it is argued that essentially predictable variations in groundwater drought vulnerability are rarely planned for or acted upon. Managementissues arising are discussed and it is suggested that governments,and particularly donors, should place more emphasis on longer term, pre-droughtmitigation measures to reduce the need for costly and sometimes ineffective emergency interventions.