Aquifers Are No Silver Bullet in Solving Africa's Water Scarcity

As the world commemorates World Water Day, Gaathier Mahed for The Conversation reports that discoveries of aquifers - underground earth formations that hold water - often create excitement around their ability to ease water scarcity in a region.

Alternative water sources, like aquifers, need to be explored. Water gets into these aquifers in different ways. Some are filled by new rainfall, others hold old, or ancient, rainfall. In Africa, most are found less than 50 metres below the ground's surface.

Many of Africa's aquifers are spread across country borders, meaning countries have to share the water resource. The largest volumes of groundwater in Africa are found in large aquifers in Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Sudan.

Aquifers have the capacity to provide some water in almost all parts of Africa. Groundwater is part of the solution to water scarcity, but not the entire solution. It should be used in a way that keeps it available long into the future.

The UN reports that, water starts wars, puts out fires, and is key to human survival, but ensuring access for all hinges largely on improving cooperation, in a new flagship report. Globally, two billion people do not have safe drinking water and 3.6 billion lack access to safely managed sanitation, the has report found.

The global urban population facing water scarcity is projected to potentially double from 930 million in 2016 to between 1.7 and 2.4 billion people, in 2050. The rising incidence of extreme and prolonged droughts is also stressing ecosystems, with dire consequences for both plant and animal species, the report has said.