Climate Change and Water Resources in West Africa: An Assessment of Groundwater Management
Summary
This document is part of a series of studies produced by the African and Latin American Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC) project that addresses adaptation to climate change in West Africa. Within the ARCC West Africa studies, this document falls in the subseries Climate Change and Water Resources in West Africa. ARCC undertook the West Africa water studies to increase understanding of the potential impacts of climate change on water resources in West Africa and identify means to support adaptation to these changes.
The report addresses the potential impacts of climate change on groundwater management in West Africa. Its general focus is sustainability of rural groundwater resources, because most rural populations heavily depend on groundwater. The recommended approach to achieving this goal is to start at local levels and slowly build up larger and more formal organizations to share in the governance not only of groundwater but of all water resources, and to ensure that water resources are not permanently depleted.