Publication: Assessment of Groundwater Challenges and Opportunities in Support of Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
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2018-08-01
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2018-08-21
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The report confirms that groundwater, if managed sustainably, can be an important development resource across the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region. The report presents data related to groundwater resource characteristics and highlights the opportunities and challenges presented in promoting sustainable and resilient groundwater development in the region. Groundwater has significant potential to support human and economic development in SSA, as it has done in other global regions. The report recommends investment in expanding groundwater development as an integral component of national water resources strategy for countries in SSA. Investment in groundwater can be financially viable and a wise policy option to support socioeconomic development if safeguards specific to groundwater are incorporated into investmentprograms. The expansion should be designed within a sustainable framework responsive to thespecial social and cultural and economic features of groundwater resources, compounded bytheir special hydrological, environmental and engineering dimensions to guide sustainabledevelopment of this important component of water resources.
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“World Bank Group. 2018. Assessment of Groundwater Challenges and Opportunities in Support of Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30266 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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