Groundwater is found underground in rocks, soils, and aquifers and makes up about 99% of all liquid freshwater on Earth. And the good part? this abundance of water resources extends to much of Africa.
Recall we published an article some time ago about researchers positing that groundwater resources in sub-Saharan Africa are enough to transform agriculture in the region and provide inhabitants with sufficient safe water for their drinking and hygiene needs if they can be better managed.
In the study titled Groundwater: the world’s neglected defence against climate change by WaterAid in conjunction with the British Geological Survey, it was stated that every sub-Saharan African country could supply about 130 litres a day of drinking water per capita from groundwater without using more than a quarter of what can be renewed, and most using only about 10%. It further revealed that most African countries could survive at least five years of drought, and some more than 50 years, on their groundwater reserves.
Well, for a country like Senegal, it is a different reality altogether as the drought situation in the remote village of Tata Bathily in Matam worsens.
With arid lands surrounded by nothing but miles of barren terrain, defunct wells dotting its hostile landscape, and temperatures that can soar above 50 degrees Celsius (123.8°F), the water crisis reveals just how expensive and difficult it will be to tap the water resources.
The struggle for water in the village has been an enduring one as the water well began to dry up in 2010. At the time, the government had drilled another well to serve as a water source for the people but as of today, residents say the well barely produces a trickle of water.
All efforts by the villagers to get another well running, met a dead-end as the new well failed to hit water despite raising $5,000 to execute the project.
According to experts, there is a dearth of hydrogeologists who are trained at locating groundwater and in cases when water is found, some of the most reliable aquifers can be as deep as 400 metres – ten times the depth of the Tata Bathily wells. For them to dig a hole that is as deep as that, they would need about $20,000.
“We don’t drink enough to satisfy our thirst, we don’t wash and we don’t do the laundry,” said Oumou Drame, a 40-year-old mother of five.
As a routine, she wakes before dawn to fetch what’s left of the water from the old well before it runs out by mid-morning like it does every day.
Oumou further stated that villages barely sleep at night. They leave their children at home to search for water. The search for well sites is mostly done by guesswork and when it fails, they have to trek further in search of promising sites.
Another villager, Aladje Drame, manages to get water from the pits with canisters and the help of his donkey-drawn cart and sells the water for 10 cents per 20-litres.
Global water experts and leaders gathered in a modern conference centre in Senegal’s capital Dakar last month, calling for better access to drinking water for those who live beyond the reach of piped water networks.
That same week, residents in Tata Bathily, over 700 km (435 miles) away in the arid northeast, were digging pits in a dry river bed a few kilometres from the village and collecting the brown water that seeped into them.
Residents say the depletion of water resources is a result of the growing populations and unpredictable rainfall.