Groundwater Risks and Institutional Responses for Poverty Reduction in Rural Africa

针对相互竞争的增长和发展目标，更好地了解地下水风险和体制应对措施，是加速和维持非洲发展的关键。灌溉农业、采矿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产生了前所未有的需求。肯尼亚东南海岸的夸莱县的特点是，肯尼亚最大的矿山将于2014年投产，这意味着新的和相互竞争的地下水利用的前景和限制。矿物砂矿每天从空间分布的矿场抽取地下水的峰值为5,400立方米，以缓冲干旱事件中地表水储存不足的情况。联合的地表水和地下水资源对于确保该矿在13年的运营中每年获得2.5亿美元的收入至关重要，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由夸莱国际甘蔗公司(KISCOL)管理的5000公顷甘蔗。其他地下水用户包括蓬勃发展的旅游业、一个小市政当局和数以千计的手动抽水用户。因此，夸莱抓住了非洲地下水科学和政策挑战的复杂现实，在一代人的社会、环境和经济变革之前的独特历史时刻。该项目的目的是描述地下水风险的生物物理和社会经济层面，以改进促进肯尼亚增长和减贫的体制对策。

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.