Groundwater for Sustainable Livelihoods and Equitable Growth explores how groundwater, often invisibly, improves peoples’ lives and livelihoods. This unique collection of 19 studies captures experiences of groundwater making a difference in 16 countries in Africa, South America and Asia. Such studies are rarely documented and this book provides a rich new collection of interdisciplinary analysis. The book is published in colour and includes many original diagrams and photographs.

Spring water, wells or boreholes have provided safe drinking water and reliable water for irrigation or industry for millennia. However, the hidden nature of groundwater often means that it’s important role both historically and in the present is overlooked. This collection helps fill this knowledge gap, providing a diverse set of new studies encompassing different perspectives and geographies. Different interdisciplinary methodologies are described that can help understand linkages between groundwater, livelihoods and growth, and how these links can be threatened by over-use, contamination, and ignorance.

Written for a worldwide audience of practitioners, academics and students with backgrounds in geology, engineering or environmental sciences; Groundwater for Sustainable Livelihoods and Equitable Growth is essential reading for those involved in groundwater and international development.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Groundwater, sustainable livelihoods and equitable growth

1. Groundwater and livelihood in Gunungsewu Karst Area, Indonesia

2. Groundwater resources development for livelihoods enhancement in the Sahel Region - Case Study of Niger

3. Groundwater, informal abstraction and peri-urban dwellers in the Techiman Municipality of Ghana

4. Urban development and intensive groundwater use in African coastal areas: the case of Lomé urban area in Togo

5. Contribution of groundwater towards urban household water security

6. Sustainable and resilient exploitation of small alluvial aquifers in the Brazilian semi-arid region: the experience of Sumé

7. Stubble burning in northwestern India- is it related to groundwater over-exploitation?

8. Groundwater recharge through landscape restoration and surface water harvesting for climate resilience: the case of Upper Tekeze River Basin, Northern Ethiopia

9. The Quaternary aquifer: an affordable resource to address water scarcity in the northern part of the Lake Chad basin

10. An overview of Karst groundwater springs in Al Jabal Al Khader region (North East Libya)

11. The Governance and water security of groundwater obtained from private domestic wells in Periurban areas in Brazil: The case study of the Guandu River Basin in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

12. Groundwater policy, legal, and institutional framework situation analysis: Gaps and action plan: The case of Malawi

13. Groundwater: A Juggernaut of socio-economic development and stability in the arid region of Kachchh

14. The role of groundwater in economic and social development of Mato Grosso do Sul State, Midwest of Brazil

15. Valuing groundwater use: resolving the potential of groundwater in the Upper Great Ruaha River Catchment of Tanzania

16. Conjunctive use of surface and groundwater: operational and water management strategies to build resilience, water security and adaptation

17. The Role of Groundwater in rural water supply: The case of six villages of Taunggyi District, Southern Shan State, Myanmar

18. Groundwater-driven paddy farming in West Bengal: How a smallholder-unfriendly farm power policy affects livelihoods of farmers

19. Assessment of options for small-scale groundwater irrigation in Lao PDR