CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT IN WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES
TAMPERE UNIVERSITY
Join Zoom Meeting on Monday, March 21 at 4 p.m.
https://tuni.zoom.us/j/61381884840?pwd=ZkdzMDJ0N1JJWDU4T24xSGVTU1c3Zz09
Meeting ID: 613 8188 4840
Passcode: CADWES
World Water Day (21.3.2022, at 16.00)
16.00
Opening: Petri Juuti, UNESCO chair, Sustainable Water Services
Lecture: Public-People Cooperation: hits and misses in sustaining Nairobi’s Groundwater, Japhet Koros, Doctoral Student
Discussion: all participants are welcome to join the discussion and ask questions.
Kansainvälisen vesipäivän seminaari (21.3.2022, klo 16.00)
16.00
Avaus: Petri Juuti, UNESCO chair, Kestävät vesihuoltopalvelut
Luento: Public-People Cooperation: hits and misses in sustaining Nairobi’s Groundwater, Japhet Koros, Doctoral Student
Keskustelu ja tilaisuuden päätös.
Public-People Cooperation: hits and misses in sustaining Nairobi’s Groundwater
The importance of groundwater sources has been increasingly growing in the city of Nairobi in the face of aa increasing demand for freshwater resources.
An increasing demand emerging from a fast-growing urban population, urbanization bringing about high per capita water consumption, and growth in industrial production have led to a strain on surface water sources that have been more relied on for the city’s water supply requirements. For instance, the frequency of water rationing has increased in order to ensure equitable allocation.
Consequently, thousands of boreholes have been sunk in the city in the recent years but with challenges in regulation of groundwater abstractions, the levels have been constantly decreasing. Similarly, the expansion of urban development and population growth continue to expose groundwater recharge areas to encroachment and degradation. These factors pose a risk for the future water availability for the city. And similarly, faced with the pressures of population growth, urbanization and industrial water demand, the challenge of managing groundwater will likely also intensify.
The water resources authority that is mandated with regulation of groundwater resources is unlikely to match the escalated demand in its limited composition of staff and resources, and neither is the county government that is charged with protection of groundwater recharge areas in the absence of local partners to help in enforcing compliance. The role of water resource users associations, as local level participants may then be prime in closing the gap, especially of enabling self-regulation, and providing critical data and information, for example, on who owns a borehole, and how much is being abstracted. But these are similarly limited in capacity in terms of knowledge on technical and regulatory issues in groundwater management, besides the general disadvantage of the invisible changes in quantity or quality in groundwater.
Institutional frameworks for stronger collaboration between the authority, the county government, and the water resources users associations need to be factored as a seeming prerequisite for effective groundwater management for the city of Nairobi.
Related links:
“Groundwater: Making the Invisible Visible” the theme of World Water Day 2022
VVY: Maailman vesipäivän 2022 teema on pohjavesi
Organizer/Järjestäjä
CADWES Capacity Development of Water and Environmental Services research team, Tampere University
CADWES Vesihuoltopalveluiden tutkimusryhmä, Rakennetun ympäristön tiedekunta, Tampereen yliopisto
Tampereen Dosenttiyhdistys Ry
Tampere Grand Old Water Professionals ry – Tampere GROWS ry
