Abstract
Urbanisation is the predominant global phenomenon of our time. This overview provides an assessment of the trends in both public and private use of groundwater for urban water-supply in 10 developing cities and their policy implications, which is based on the global experience during 2001–2012 of the World Bank—Groundwater Management Advisory Team (a multi-disciplinary team of groundwater specialists working long-term for the World Bank, with special funding principally from the Netherlands Government supplemented by the United Kingdom and Denmark), together with subsequent follow-up enquiries. The strategic assessment analyses both the benefits to water users and the broader community of groundwater use, and the associated risks in terms of (a) compromising resource sustainability, (b) impacting the built infrastructure, (c) public-health hazards arising from widespread groundwater pollution and (d) the economic distortion of water-sector investments.
Highlights
Groundwater Management Specialist Group, International Water Association, Urban Groundwater Network, International Association of Hydrogeologists, P.O
Dependence on groundwater for public and/or private water-supply is a fast-increasing phenomenon in developing cities [6,7,8,9], which is occurring in response to population growth, accelerating urbanisation, higher ambient temperatures, increasing per capita usage and reduced security of river intakes
Falling water-table due to excessive groundwater extraction, leading to land subsidence, building damage and increased surface-water flood risk (e.g., Bangkok/Table 1); water-table rebound, if groundwater use is abandoned for some reason such as serious pollution (e.g., Buenos Aires/Table 1), causing basement damage, groundwater flooding to transportation routes, malfunction of septic tanks and excessive inflows to deep collector sewers
Summary
In the course of providing data analysis and investment advice to potential World Bank-funded urban water-supply and water-resource projects worldwide, the World Bank—Groundwater. Declining water-table/well yields; in-situ sanitation causing high nitrate levels in a shallow aquifer; uncontrolled private waterwell drilling. Supplementary water source needed; water-service utility needs to embrace private waterwell use (30+ Ml/d) and prioritise the sewerage system. Utility/industrial waterwell use reduced in the late 1980s (due to pollution fears); strong water-table rebound caused groundwater flooding. Multi-stakeholder task-force on urban groundwater needed; some water-utility pumping must be maintained for water-supply/drainage purposes. Institutional agreement on urban waterwell drilling ban; improved monitoring and protection measures for public water-supply sources. Surface-water sources decreasing in reliability; major private waterwell use (80+ Ml/d) but aquifer widely polluted by in-situ sanitation. Surface-water sources decreasing in reliability; major private waterwell drilling (90–280 Ml/d) but groundwater levels have fallen by 50+ m. * approximate figure for water-service area (political boundaries render census data inappropriate)
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