In Africa there is hardly any water security. More than a third of the continent, or half a billion people, live without secure access to water, the UN Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) announced on Monday at the start of the ninth World Water Forum in Senegal’s capital Dakar.
Despite the global Sustainable Development Goals, almost half of the continent’s 54 countries have made no progress on water security in the past three to five years, according to the report released on World Water Day (March 22). The UN has a fairly broad definition of water security. Among other things, this involves access to sufficiently clean water, but also ecological issues.
Sinking groundwater in Germany as a result of climate change
Even Africa’s five most water-secure countries — Egypt, Botswana, Gabon, Mauritius and Tunisia — had “only modest levels of water security,” it said. According to the UN, Somalia, Chad and Niger are the least water-secure countries on the continent.
According to the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Germany is also at risk of falling groundwater levels in the coming decades as a result of climate change. Especially in northern and eastern Germany there could be longer periods with low groundwater levels towards the end of the century, said Stefan Broda from the BGR.
Too high nitrate pollution of the groundwater by agriculture
In a new world water report, UNESCO calls for the sustainable use and better management of groundwater supplies. At six percent of the global amount, Europe extracts little groundwater, primarily for drinking water production. But in 38 percent of all aquifers there is pollution from agriculture, mainly from excessive nitrate pollution.
Asia is the continent with the most intensive use of groundwater, according to the report entitled “Groundwater – Making the Invisible Visible”. The amount removed primarily through agriculture is twice as high as on all other continents combined. As a result, the large stocks in parts of China and South Asia were exhausted very quickly. At the same time, the groundwater is sometimes heavily polluted.
Huge groundwater reserves in Africa hardly used
According to the report, more than half of the water used by private households worldwide comes from groundwater. Roughly a quarter of irrigation in agriculture depends on groundwater. Nevertheless, groundwater is “poorly understood and poorly managed in many places,” UNESCO complains. In some parts of the world this is leading to dramatic overexploitation and pollution.
In Africa, on the other hand, according to UNESCO, the huge groundwater reserves are hardly used. Only three percent of the arable land is equipped with appropriate irrigation systems, of which only five percent use groundwater. The development of groundwater could be a catalyst for economic development, especially in Africa.
Almost two thirds of the drinking water requirement in Germany is covered by groundwater
According to the Federal Statistical Office, groundwater plays by far the largest role in the public water supply in Germany. In 2019, public water supply companies removed 3.3 billion cubic meters of water from groundwater, as the Federal Office announced on World Water Day on March 22nd. This corresponded to a share of a good 62 percent.
839 million cubic meters or around 16 percent came from bank filtrate and enriched groundwater. River, lake and dam water contributed 738 million cubic meters (almost 14 percent) to covering the water requirement. In the case of spring water, it was 436 million cubic meters (eight percent).
Every German uses an average of 128 liters of water per day
According to the statisticians, every person in Germany uses an average of 128 liters of water per day. This year’s Water Day has the motto “Our groundwater: the invisible treasure”. In this context, the Federal Office also referred to nitrate pollution, which is an indicator of the quality of the groundwater. The main reason for nitrate pollution is over-fertilization.
“From a nitrate content of 50 milligrams per liter, groundwater is no longer suitable for drinking without treatment,” explained the statistical office. In 2020, values higher than 50 milligrams per liter were recorded at 15.9 percent of all measuring points. “The proportion is changing hardly for years because the hydrological conditions mean that the nitrate value in the groundwater can only be reduced slowly, even if there are no more entries above ground,” the Federal Office continued.