Groundwater

Groundwater and its susceptibility to degradation:

This publication provides an overview of the susceptibility of groundwater to degradation caused by human activities. Including both quantity and quality impacts, it examines the different issues affecting groundwater resources in rural and urban/industrial settings, where groundwater has become an integral part of billions of people's lives. Numerous examples illustrate the consequent resource management issues and underline the need for active management, not development by default.

This review is intended for planners and other decision-makers at national/provincial government level and also for the general reader.

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Assessment of Pollution Status and Vulnerability of Water Supply Aquifers of African Cities

Is a joint Project of UNEP-DEWA in collaboration with UNESCO-IHP as the implementing agency, UN-Habitat and ECA as regional and political partners. The project aims to build on the successes achieved in earlier work ( see "Urban Pollution of Surficial and Groundwater Aquifers in Africa") carried out in six (Benin, Burkina Faso, CÔte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Senegal) West African countries and includes four new Anglophone countries i.e. Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya and Zambia. Its aim is to determine the status and vulnerability of groundwater supplies in cities of the selected countries, establish a network for exchange of related information, and develop suitable methodologies for assessing and monitoring of real and potential contamination of shallow and deeper groundwater aquifers ...

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Groundwater Recharge
"A Survey of Methods for Groundwater Recharge in Arid and Semi-arid regions"

The rate of recharge is the single most important factor in the analysis and management of groundwater resources in arid and semi-arid regions. At the same time, it is also the most difficult quantity to determine. This report, which is the result of a course held in Niamey, Niger, in 2000, presents an overview of all the methods identified to date for estimating groundwater recharge, including an assessment of the accuracy and suitability of each.

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