“If we consider that all the rain that fell on the land could be harvested, there would be fewer water and food security problems as water demand could be met – the fact is that much of this rain falls in short periods of time with high intensity, and that a large part of it runs off the land, while that which is collected is not collected nor stored efficiently.” – Resilient WASH systems in drought prone areas, CARE Nederland
[[File:care photo.jpg|thumb|left|300px400px|Drought conditions. Photo: CARE Nederland]]
When I think of drought regions around the world, it seems simple: places where a lack of water or reduced water is found (or not found) at various water resource points. I thought drought primarily happened in desert-prone areas, so I figured a study on drought would be mainly for those regions. It turns out I was wrong! With climate change effects on the rise, drought actually affects many regions as well as economies, gender, food security, and so much more. For the past few months at Akvo, we have been slowly integrating Desk study: Resilient WASH systems in drought prone areas, by CARE Nederland (on drought and making water systems more drought resilient) into Akvopedia, Akvo’s online encyclopedia for everything WASH-related.
Contrary to old practices of physically capturing and storing every bit of rain possible, sometimes allowing rain to loosely recharge an aquifer has many more advantages. Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) is a technique of managing drought that is gaining in popularity, primarily because keeping the groundwater recharged supports water (and food) security better. MAR tends to address more factors affected by drought, such as keeping soil moisture (crucial to crop success) and preventing evaporation (since aquifers have natural “lids” of earth/rock/soil on them). Plus, aquifers cover a lot of geographical area, which reduces the time people need to travel to access water, if for example, they can drill or dig a well where they are at, and have local access.
[[File:contour_Trench_hill.JPG|thumb|left|300px400px|Contour trenches used to slow water moving down a hill so that absorption into the aquifer is possible. Photo: Unknown.]]
The CARE study really helped us rethink Akvopedia as well. It encouraged us to expand and recategorise our water technologies and helped make the information we did already have, stronger and more complete. Next up, is a new study about how floods affect water resources and how to mitigate those influences, also by CARE in the near future. In addition, there has been a request to integrate a new study on water quality solutions. If you have a study to contribute, we’d love to integrate it! Please contact Mark Tiele Westra at: m.t.westra [at] akvo.org.
The main drought page where you will find all of the links and pages concerned with the CARE study: [[Resilient_WASH_systems_in_drought-prone_areas|Resilient WASH systems in drought-prone areas.]]