Ground Water Irrigation: The Perfect Solution?

This week I will focus on the topic of groundwater irrigation or GWI. However, I will start by discussing the importance of irrigation for Africa. A report produced by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) discussed the importance and potential of irrigation in Africa. Eighty-five percent of the ‘poor’ people in Africa's live in rural areas, largely dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. Only 6% of Africa’s agricultural land is irrigated, the vast majority therefore reliant on rainfall (IFPRI, 2010).

With such a vast proportion of the poor population reliant on agriculture, it seems the most obvious solution to reducing poverty is improving the agricultural sector. The only logical way to do this is to remove the greatest vulnerability: rain. Sustainable agricultural development will deliver poverty alleviation, economic growth and food security.

Rainfall is categorically unreliable. The rainfall in semi-arid areas only lasts for around 25% of the year. 92% of these semi-arid environments, often concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, rely on this rainfall (Taylor, 2004).

With rainfall clearly highlighted as the limiting factor, we naturally turn our heads towards irrigation as the solution. There is sufficient research to suggest that the type of irrigation we should turn our heads directly towards is ground water irrigation (GWI). A journal article led by Adelana in 2008 talks about the importance of GWI for development. The article discusses how most African cities are built and developed from groundwater infrastructure, and cities would not be functioning without it. This begs the question of how rural agricultural regions are expected to function without it (Adelana et al, 2008).

With GWI noted as a key factor in enhancing water security, it is important to start analysing the reality of this solution (Foster et al, 2018). The present-day drive for urban groundwater use has led to accelerating rates of usage. This, alongside developing markets and technological advancements have caused a decrease in the cost of groundwater infrastructure (Villholth, 2013). The greatest uptake of GWI outside of urban environments has been from rural small-hold farmers. It is believed that in some sub-Saharan countries, small scale GWI is covering an area over 10 times the size of publicly funded GWI systems.

A sophisticated GWI system in Zambia, Africa.

(Source)

Climate change is bringing more extreme and consistently less predictable weather patterns. Farmers can rely on GWI as a reliable source of water. This characteristic of GWI is likely to result in a large expansion of its coverage, even reaching less arid regions.

All of the information written above certainly illustrates a fine picture for GWI, but this inevitably leads us towards the doubts shadowing it. One of the major drawbacks of ground water irrigation is that it is often only led by large scale investment programs or public schemes. These schemes are notorious for not reaching their promised potential and also not reaching the people who need it the most. Often, the ignorance of the multinational is to blame here, disregarding the indigenous knowledge of the local farmers. This is something we will discuss in a later blog. There are also multiple other drawbacks to GWI. Firstly, it is simple not accessible in arid countries such as Kenya that lack a prominent water table. GWI is also expensive despite reduction in cost. It may not help to relieve poverty as only the richest of ‘poor farmers’ can afford the infrastructure to implement it. These schemes often rely on loans and this heavily disadvantages women, who are substantially less likely to secure a loan. Finally, over-reliance and misuse of groundwater can result in catastrophic consequences, this will be discussed in next week’s blog.  

To conclude this blog: Whilst rapid expansion of GWI in the last few decades has “transformed rural economies in large parts of the developing world” (Giordano, 2006). Future research into GWI in Africa should question where the development is possible and, also equally important, where it is not.