African groundwater much greater than surface water

In many parts of the world, water supplies for human use often originate in lakes, constructed reservoirs or municipal wells. In less developed countries, communities often depend more on surface waters such as lakes, rivers and streams for water. However, in Africa, there aren’t many surface water supplies, meaning that water for agriculture and human consumption is very limited.

New research shows that the amount of groundwater available in Africa is more than 100 times greater than what is available from lakes, rivers, and other surface waters. This discovery could be critical to addressing the challenges of increased food demands and water use, set to increase rapidly over the next few decades with population growth and development. However, digging wells to access this groundwater will take international support and collaboration and still presents important challenges, and groundwater distribution is not uniform throughout the continent.

Read more at phys.org

Image credit: whymap.org