Groundwater resources are essential for providing drinking water, supporting irrigation, and ensuring the sustainability of rivers, lakes, and wetlands in the SADC region’s growing population. However, increased demand, population growth, and climate change place more significant pressure on these resources. Mismanagement has already caused contamination and overexploitation of aquifers in some areas, leading to potential water supply issues, land subsidence, and the deterioration of groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Monitoring our groundwater resources for assessment, prediction, and effective management is crucial. Unfortunately, in the SADC region, insufficient data makes groundwater monitoring a significant challenge, negatively impacting efforts to manage and improve groundwater resources.
Malawi is one country where groundwater monitoring is currently facing several operational challenges. A comprehensive national assessment conducted in early 2022 by the Groundwater Division of the Ministry of Water and Sanitation, in collaboration with BASEflow, revealed that a staggering 84% of data loggers installed across the country were non-operational, vandalized, or inaccessible for manual data download. Further compounding the problem, many monitoring wells suffered significant vandalism to their civil structures, such as manhole covers and concrete. Only a tiny fraction of these wells had community-based gauge readers, most lacking proper site management training. The role of these community-based gauge readers is crucial, and their lack of proper training is a significant issue, as it hinders their ability to manage the sites effectively and contributes to the vandalism of the infrastructure.
In response to these critical issues, the Ministry of Water and Sanitation through the Groundwater Division, in collaboration with Baseflow and with financial backing from the World Bank, is implementing the project titled “Rehabilitation of 20 Existing Monitoring Wells”, in the Shire River and Lake Chawla Basins. This project is a powerful example of the impact that collaboration and shared responsibility can have. These basins are vital for Malawi’s socio-economic development. The project, which includes rehabilitating 20 existing monitoring wells, installing new telemetry and traditional data logger technology, and extensive community sensitization efforts, has the potential to significantly impact Malawi’s socio-economic development. Moreover, the project aims to build the capacity of national, district, and community stakeholders to ensure sustainable and effective groundwater monitoring practices that support long-term water resource management and socio-economic resilience in Malawi.
Project Background and Objectives
Malawi’s national groundwater monitoring network, established in 2009, is a critical early warning system for identifying and addressing potential issues affecting groundwater availability and quality. The monitoring wells are located across ten districts in the southern region of Malawi, including Blantyre, Chikwawa, Nanjo, Mwanza, Phalombe, Zomba, Thyolo, Machinga, Balaka, and Mulanje. Due to a sparse network of monitoring wells, non-functional equipment, and insufficient technical capacity, the network is currently not operating at its total capacity, leading to ineffective groundwater monitoring in the country. This has resulted in ineffective groundwater monitoring in the country. The lack of effective monitoring is negatively impacting resource planning as decision-makers do not have access to accurate information to make informed decisions.
This project aims to address these issues by:
- Rehabilitating the groundwater monitoring network.
- Building capacity.
- Raising community groundwater awareness.
- Improving coordination between national and district governments and communities.
Alignment with National Plans
This project aligns with Malawi’s National Water Policy and Vision 2063, which emphasizes the sustainable management of water resources, including groundwater. Vision 2063’s 10-year Implementation Plan includes installing and institutionalizing a real-time groundwater level monitoring system using the latest telemetric technology. This initiative enhances the monitoring of groundwater, aligning with the national development agenda by furnishing dependable data for improved resource management and decision-making.
Main Activities of the Project
The main activities of the project include:
- Rehabilitation of 20 existing monitoring wells.
- Drilling and constructing three telemetrically enabled monitoring wells in strategic aquifers, including installing new data loggers.
- Improving the skills and knowledge of national, district, and community stakeholders for effective groundwater monitoring and management.
- Training programs for 20 staff from the Groundwater Division and the National Water Resources Authority (NWRA) on operating and maintaining telemetry-enabled groundwater monitoring equipment.
- Community engagement, including training 20 community-based gauge readers in monitoring well site management and sensitizing 2000 community members about the importance of groundwater monitoring.
- Conducting a forensic assessment of more than eight hand-pumped boreholes within the communities to inform a customized maintenance intervention for non-functional boreholes due to lack of maintenance.
Project Beneficiaries
The project will benefit various stakeholders, including:
- 20 existing staff from the Groundwater Division and the NWRA.
- 20 community members who will be trained as gauge readers.
- 54 district government staff who will be oriented on managing the groundwater monitoring network.
- 2000 community members who will be sensitized to groundwater monitoring.
Capacity Building and Project Sustainability
A capacity-building component has been integrated to ensure the project’s long-term sustainability. The project will train duty bearers and key stakeholders responsible for groundwater monitoring, including the Ministry of Water and Sanitation—Groundwater Division. At the local level, the project will engage with local communities to secure the infrastructure from vandalism and theft, aiming to foster their active involvement in groundwater monitoring. This strategy promotes community ownership and guarantees the project’s sustainability over time.
This project, technically supported by the SADC Groundwater Management Institute, represents a significant step towards improving groundwater monitoring in Malawi. By addressing the current operational challenges and enhancing the capacity of stakeholders, the project aims to provide reliable groundwater data for better resource management and decision-making, ultimately contributing to the country’s socio-economic development and resilience to climate change.