The Invisibility of Groundwater and Women

A community-based groundwater monitoring exercise underway in Ethiopia (Source)

Let's open a discussion on a more 'invisible' water source in Africa: Groundwater. As a largely untapped resource, sustainable groundwater use is crucial to meeting water and sanitation needs, as well as alleviating poverty, increasing food security, gender equality and fighting climate change. This post aims to discuss how genuine participation of women is key to realising the full potential of groundwater in Ethiopia. 

Out of sight, out of mind 

Figure 1: Map of African countries and their relative groundwater storage and rainfall recharge capabilities. (Source)

Seeping through fractures of rocks and infiltrating the earth, 0.66 million km3 of groundwater exists below Africa's surface (Figure 1). Groundwater is the world's largest distributed freshwater source, and supplies 85% of Ethiopia with potable water. Compared to surface water, groundwater is of higher quality and does not typically require as much treatment before use. Groundwater also proves to be a climate change resilient water source that can withstand prolonged dry seasons and increasingly variable rainfall intensities, if properly managed and monitored. 

Yet, its 'invisibility' results in it often being ignored in conventional water metrics and policy discussions. 

As groundwater distribution is uneven, it is necessary to have holistic data on groundwater systems and recharge rates to develop appropriate abstraction policies for sustainable use. However, given differences in land cover and rainfall intensity across Africa, continent-wide figures derived from remotely sensed data conceal local-scale groundwater variations. Furthermore, research tends to focus on deep aquifers with high well yields. Citizen science studies conducted at the community level can bring to the fore shallow groundwater resources that are particularly relevant to data-scarce rural areas of Ethiopia through the collection of continuous time-series groundwater data. It is especially crucial to manage shallow groundwater sources due to higher vulnerability to climate variability and over-exploitation. Greater understandings of how these water sources are utilised by the community can then guide institutional arrangements for groundwater governance. 

Groundwater use in Dangila woreda

In the north-western highlands of Ethiopia, Dangila woreda (district) is drained to the south of Lake Tana, which is an "extensive area of shallow regoliths" (Figure 2). The sub-tropical climate of the area receives around 1600mm of annual rainfall. 

Figure 2: Map of Dangila woreda in Ethiopia (Source)

The many shallow dug wells throughout the woreda are primarily used for domestic purposes. As discussed in previous posts, water-use in the domestic sphere typically falls under women's responsibility, and Dangila woreda is no exception. Unlike the other case studies discussed before, ease of access to groundwater sources (between 5-30 minutes to collect water) allows Dangila woreda women to save time and energy for other productive activities that results in high incomes and more diversified diets. It hence comes as no surprise that Dangila woreda women hold groundwater in high regard and are concerned about its sustainable use. 

However, Dangila woreda women continue to have low decision-making power when it comes to groundwater governance. Despite the Ethiopian Water Resources Management Policy encouraging women's active participation in groundwater management, this does not play out in reality. Although women are represented in water user committees for communal wells, they hold non-decision making roles such as cashiers, storekeepers and pump attendants, while men occupy secretariat and chairman positions. Further, 54% of women surveyed were not willing to participate in groundwater management, due to fear of gender-based violence, low self esteem, illiteracy, and heavy domestic and productive work burdens. With low levels of input, women's needs and experience are not accounted for in groundwater decisions, despite being the main users of shallow groundwater. 

Challenges to harnessing the full power of groundwater

Although it is becoming increasingly crucial to include more discussions on groundwater because of climate change, without the active participation of all groundwater users, it will be extremely challenging to generate comprehensive groundwater data, and the full potential of groundwater cannot be realised. 

Even in more 'developed contexts', the gendered division of labour within local-scale water use committees in Dangila woreda parallels that of the international-scale COP26 leadership team, discussed in an earlier post. It is clear that achieving meaningful and genuine participation of women in groundwater management is a challenging task that cannot be done overnight. Despite having some forms of 'empowerment' from high access to groundwater, the multiple and overlapping barriers to entry for Dangila woreda women (such as low education rates and gender-based violence) must hence be tackled simultaneously in order to gradually shift mindsets towards valuing women on all fronts.