Groundwater and Food Security
Groundwater is essential for food production and food security. About 70 per cent of global groundwater withdrawals are used to grow food and industrial crops and raise livestock across the globe. This hidden treasure enriches our lives, and life would be impossible without groundwater.
At least two billion people across the whole world depend solely on groundwater to satisfy their daily drinking and other domestic water needs. Population growth has increased the demand for groundwater as more people need to feed. This means that amount of water used in food production increases rapidly to meet the demand. This can lead to over-exploitation of the natural resource which can result in its depletion.
Groundwater is our most significant source of liquid freshwater, stored in rocks and soil. It sustains drinking water supplies, sanitation systems, farming, industry and ecosystems. Yet, some 20 per cent of the world’s aquifers are being overexploited.” António Guterres Secretary-general of the United Nations.
Groundwater has been out of our sight and out of mind for a long time. It’s time to take action and protect groundwater as much as it’s invisible, but its impact is felt globally.
The World Water Day 22/3/2022 theme: Groundwater–making the invisible visible reminds us that groundwater is simply invisible, but its impact is felt everywhere. Groundwater may be out of our site, but it must not be out of mind. Groundwater provides 50% of all drinking water, more than 40 % of irrigation water and a third of the industrial sector’s global need for water. Groundwater may be the only water people use for their daily consumption in the driest parts of the world.
Groundwater is the world’s most abundant freshwater resource and a crucial regulator of water extremes such as floods and drought. The vast majority of the world’s fresh water is distributed as groundwater. Groundwater is water found beneath the surface of aquifers, which are underground rock formations of rocks, gravels, and sands that allow water to accumulate.
Groundwater is essential to the function of water and sanitation systems, agriculture, industry, ecosystems, and climate adaptation. Groundwater overuse can cause instability and subsidence of land.
Why is World Water Day important?
World Water Day is essential because it raises awareness of around 2 billion people living without access to safe water across the globe. Its main aim is to tackle the water crisis.
Water is indispensable for life, but it’s often taken for granted. This goes without saying, especially when it comes to this valuable resource often hidden underground. Like all other natural resources, however, freshwater is finite, and our way of life and environmental impact seriously impact its availability.
Let’s work together and protect this hidden treasure, “groundwater.”
How crucial is groundwater to our survival?
Groundwater use in many areas exceeds groundwater recharge by rain or snow; as a result, aquifers are nearing depletion in many areas.
Groundwater pollution can be a bad long-term problem that needs years or even centuries to address.
In certain areas, we don’t yet know how much groundwater is lying below our feet, meaning we can potentially be missing out on a valuable resource.
Resiliency against climate change and the ability of current programs to mitigate the effects of global warming are also taken into account. The temperature of groundwater.
Earth’s high heat capacity and insulating properties enable you to retard the activities of environmental variables and maintain the water level at a stable temperature. Groundwater surface levels of approximately 10 C (50 F) are sufficient to handle the temperature of structures on the surface.
For example, relatively calm water can be transferred through radiators in a home during the summer and returned to the ground in another well or dam.
During cold seasons, because it is hot, the water can serve as an efficient heat source for heat pumps that are much more efficient than using air.
How to Address Groundwater Depletion
For humans to maintain life, water is a necessity. That’s certainly true if this mineral-rich fluid is lodged underground. Sadly, like other organic resources, pure, clean water is finite, and our choices for living and conducting livelihood impact its supply.
We need to sustainably protect our groundwater and use it for purposes, balancing the needs of the community and the world. Groundwater has a vital function in providing water for humans and crops, running watercourses, assessing ecosystems, and curbing climate change.
We must also protect groundwater from pollution and ensure that it is safe for human beings in different parts of the world.
Construction of big dams was put across as a method of storing groundwater, but communities relocated to higher ground. For instance, when there were floods, hence not convenient for some communities. Greater importance is given to natural reservoirs combined with surface water storage in wetlands, flood plains and rivers.
Monitoring groundwater consumption, particularly in irrigated areas, is also crucial for sustainable use. FAO maintains partnerships with other organizations that provide precision irrigation, water harvesting and storage, and satellite technology, allowing governments to invest in these resources in cost-effective ways for assessing groundwater.
There is a need to improve agricultural productivity to increase agricultural water productivity. Improving irrigation systems, water management, and crop productivity could help boost agricultural water productivity.
Groundwater has lifted massive amounts out of abject poverty throughout the world, thanks to improvements in technology for drilling and exploitation of energy sources for pumping subsurface water. Irrigation driven by groundwater income is estimated to be a staggering US$230 billion a year globally.
It is expected that the demand for food, feed, and biofuel will rise by 50 per cent by 2050, relative to 2012 levels, due to greater consumption. Overexploitation of groundwater, which shows no signs of slowing down, could undermine basic water supplies, food security and resilience in the face of the climate crisis on a global basis. As the poorest and most marginalized communities are most affected, they are likely to footing part of the bill for the damage.
Across the globe, groundwater is becoming less predictable, and conditions see to it that flooding is likely to happen, destroying water storage facilities and spoiling sources of drinking water. By saving water today, we are protecting our future.
Agricultural water productivity can be improved by modernizing irrigation systems and improving continuous groundwater monitoring.
How has groundwater helped us throughout history?
In the 1960s, India’s Green Revolution was successfully launched, which led to an end to centuries of famine. The large bodies of water beneath India’s surface provided essential support for advanced agricultural practices that contributed to a period of prosperity.
India uses groundwater for irrigated areas in large numbers; this precious resource serves an estimated 60 per cent of the area’s irrigated surfaces. Without it, numerous nations around the world would be without food. In North America and South Asia, 59 per cent and 57 per cent of the land irrigated with groundwater stems from this source.
Such gains have come at a cost. In India, to provide affordable food for its rapidly expanding population, local governments offered cheap and in some cases, free electricity to farmers to operate their water pumps. This caused groundwater levels to drop dangerously low in parts of the country, prompting the government to enact policies that reversed them.
A similar story can be found in neighbouring Pakistan, one of the world’s four most significant water users. Decent overexploitation has rendered the country vulnerable to an imminent freshwater crisis, despite the Indus basin housing 80 times the volume of water in its largest dams.
Over the 60-plus-year duration of Pakistan’s history, it has gone from a surface water-dependent country to a country with groundwater dependence and from a groundwater surplus to a country where groundwater is the principal resource.
What is Eco Clubs of Kenya doing to protect groundwater?
Encourage the use of harmless, biodegradable products to avoid pollution of groundwater.
We are educating people on the efficient use of groundwater to prevent depletion in future.
In the end, water is the only means of survival is to conserve water to prolong your life. Life doesn’t include people only, and it contains plants and animals. Let’s protect groundwater and use it sparingly because we do not know how much groundwater we have, yet its depletion can be tragic to the ecosystem.
Join Eco Clubs of Kenya to protect groundwater by safeguarding food production and food security by donating to https://ecoclubsofkenya.co.ke/donate/
