Groundwater in Ethiopia: Features, Numbers and Opportunities

Groundwater has a huge potential increasing resilience and incomes of the rural poor in Africa. Indeed it gives the possibility to smallholders to access water during the dry season and maintain home gardens (http://catherinepfeifer.blogspot.ch/2012/06/success-and-failures-maksenit-watershed.html), adding a cropping season or insure sufficient drinking water for the household and livestock.

Unfortunately very few data are available about groundwater in Africa and more particularly in Ethiopia. The recent global African map by  MacDonald et al 2012 (http://catherinepfeifer.blogspot.ch/2012/04/accessing-ground-water-is-easiest-way.html) is a good step but remains relatively non detailed. Seifu Kebebe a researcher from Addis Ababa University, has looked into more details into groundwater in Ethiopia and has just published a book about it.

This book obviously fills a huge gap for water management in Ethiopia!

More about this book and be found under the following links : 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Groundwater-Ethiopia-Features-Opportunities-Hydrogeology/dp/3642303900#reader_3642303900
http://www.springer.com/earth+sciences+and+geography/hydrogeology/book/978-3-642-30390-6
 
The International Water Management Institute in Addis Ababa, per courtesy of Seifu has access the groundwater maps presented in the book. Please contact the GIS team or myself for more information about these maps and conditions of access.