Groundwater Risks and Institutional Responses for Poverty Reduction in Rural Africa

更好地了解地下水风险和针对相互竞争的增长和发展目标采取的机构对策，是加速和维持非洲发展的关键。灌溉农业、采矿业和旅游业都提供了摆脱贫困的途径，但对复杂和知之甚少的地下水系统提出了前所未有的要求。肯尼亚东南海岸的夸莱县描述了新的和竞争性的地下水使用的前景和限制，肯尼亚最大的矿山将于2014年开始生产。该矿砂矿从空间分布的钻井现场每天抽取5，400立方米的地下水，作为干旱事件中地表水储存不足的缓冲。联合地表和地下水资源对于确保矿山运营13年内每年2.5亿美元的收入流至关重要，这将使矿产成为肯尼亚第四大外汇来源。夸莱沿海含水层系统还灌溉夸莱国际甘蔗公司管理的5 000公顷甘蔗。其他地下水用户包括蓬勃发展的旅游业，一个小城市和数千个手泵水用户。因此，夸莱抓住了非洲地下水科学和政策挑战的复杂现实，在一个独特的历史时刻之前，一代人的社会，环境和经济变化。该项目的目的是查明地下水风险的生物物理和社会经济层面，为改进机构应对措施提供信息，以促进肯尼亚的增长和减贫。

Improved understanding of groundwater risks and institutional responses against competing growth and development goals is central to accelerating and sustaining Africa's development. Irrigated agriculture, mining and tourism all provide pathways out of poverty but create unprecedented demands on complex and poorly understood groundwater systems. Kwale County on the south eastern coast of Kenya characterises the prospects and limits for new and competing groundwater use with Kenya's largest mine beginning production in 2014. The mineral sands mine has a peak groundwater abstraction of 5,400 m3 per day from a spatially-distribution borefield site to act as a buffer to surface water storage deficits in drought events. Conjunctive surface and groundwater resources are critical to ensure a revenue stream of USD250 million per year over 13 years of the mine's operation, which will elevate minerals to be the Kenya's fourth largest foreign exchange generator. The Kwale coastal aquifer system also irrigates 5,000 hectares of sugarcane managed by Kwale International Sugarcane Company (KISCOL). Other groundwater users include a thriving tourism industry, a small municipality and thousands of handpump water users. Thus, Kwale captures the complex reality of Africa's groundwater science and policy challenges at a unique historical moment prior to a generation of social, environmental and economic change. The aim of the project is to characterise biophysical and socio-economic dimensions of groundwater risk to inform improved institutional responses to promote growth and poverty reduction in Kenya.