Projects

Partner institutions:

• Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland- GEUS
• Regional Centre on Groundwater Resources _RCGW
• University of Copenhagen – IGN
• University of Copenhagen – IFRO
• University of Aarhus- AU
• University of Nairobi- UoN
• Water Resources Authority- WRA
• Turkana University College -TUC

Concept

The general concept of this project is to integrate well-developed methods and advances in geo- and socio-economic sciences to:

• Identify environmental factors governing high groundwater F^– and salinity in arid regions predicted by the global machine learning models,
• Advance existing conceptual models of F^– cycling in Kenyan aquifers by examining the impact of groundwater-surface water exchange, and effects and importance of specific hydrogeochemical processes on groundwater F^– concentrations and salinity,
• Assess the net effect of climate change and increasing groundwater demand on groundwater F^– concentrations and salinity, and
• Explore socio-economic consequences and welfare gains of groundwater resource availability and quality, and distributional consequences of groundwater treatment. The project outputs will support climate change adaptation and resilience through knowledge dissemination to stakeholders and policymakers, and awareness building among citizens.

Relevance and context

The project outputs will be transferable and highly relevant to other arid regions in Africa and Asia, where 6.5% and 2% of the populations, respectively, are potentially exposed to groundwater F^– concentrations exceeding the WHO recommended drinking water guideline. GEM activities will be carried out by an interdisciplinary consortium of internationally recognized research institutions, the recently established Turkana University College providing indigenous knowledge of water-related challenges in Turkana County, and government partners from Kenya and Denmark. This project builds on existing activities and initiatives in Turkana County, including REACH project (2015-2024) that has improved water security for 10 million people in Africa and Asia through new knowledge, policies and technologies, an on-going geophysical-capacity-building (GCB) program funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the EU-funded ALBATROSS project (2024-2027) that aims to advance knowledge for long-term benefits and climate adaptation through holistic climate services and nature-based solutions, and the Kenyan-Danish Strategic Sector Cooperation (SSC) on Water to be implemented 2025-2027 with a focus on groundwater, nature-based solutions and pollution risk mapping. The findings, resources, and networks established in the previous and ongoing projects will leverage activities proposed in GEM and maximize the project’s impact. GEM may also enhance the implementation of “the Alliance for Inclusive Refugee Response” – a coalition of Grundfos, Novo Nordisk, and LEGO Foundations, and the Danish MFA supporting the refugee and the host community in Turkana County by, amongst others, enabling an access to water.

GEM project consortium aims to produce high-quality scientific knowledge that addresses challenges of water security and informs policy for transformational change. We will ensure that the collaborative efforts benefit all relevant stakeholders in the partner countries. Principal Investigator (PI) held a meeting at the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA) with the head of Kenyan-Danish SSC on Water, where mutual interest in collaboration on groundwater issues in Turkana County was expressed. The project partners and PI mapped stakeholders in Kenya, e.g. Turkana County Government, Water Resources Authority, local community groups, with whom they have undertaken a dialogue during the full proposal preparation.

Objectives

The overall project goal is to enhance groundwater resource management for climate change resilience and adaptation in arid regions through dissemination of the knowledge generated under Kenyan-Danish development research collaboration.

The specific research objectives for each work package (WP) are:

• To identify environmental variables governing spatial patterns of groundwater resource availability, and groundwater F^– concentrations and salinity in arid regions for sustainable groundwater resource exploitation and protection at regional scale (WP1).
• To understand hydrogeological and hydrogeochemical processes impacting F^– concentrations and salinity in alluvial aquifers under groundwater-surface water exchange for sustainable local groundwater resources management (WP2).
• To predict the net effect of future climate change and increasing groundwater demand on groundwater resource availability, F^– concentrations and salinity in alluvial aquifers of Turkana County for improved climate change resilience and adaptation (WP3).
• To assess the welfare economic and equity impact of water-scarcity as well as groundwater resource availability and quality (WP4).
• To support inclusive groundwater governance and climate change resilience in arid regions through strengthening research capacity and dissemination of expertise and data (WP5).

 Expected outcomes and outputs

Significant project outcomes include:

• Enhanced groundwater resources management, including protection and implementation, and knowledge-informed resilience to climate change (WP1).
• Evidence-based groundwater resources management in local freshwater aquifers (WP2, 3).
• Improved resilience of groundwater resource quality by knowledge-informed decision-making on e.g. groundwater protection and abstraction rates (WP2, 3).
• Reduced inequity through optimized climate action based on societal needs (WP4).
• Improved awareness of people on the impact of poor groundwater quality ingestion (WP4).
• Increased awareness of citizens in value of groundwater resources (WP4, 5).
• Enhanced interdisciplinary research capacity in groundwater resources (WP5).
• Capacity strengthening of key stakeholders and decision-makers in groundwater resources management and the related policy making (WP5).

Kenya is a water-scarce with 83% of its land being arid or semi-arid lands (ASALs). Between 1990 and 2015, one drought occurred every 2.5 years and affected about 4.8 million people each time. In September 2021 a national drought disaster was declared with over 2.1 million people pronounced food insecure. The drought is being felt to-date. Drought-related livestock losses amounted to US$1.08 billion in the last decade. High borehole failure calls for mainstreaming operation and maintenance (O&M) or rural water supply schemes. Strengthening the knowledge about the water resources is needed to better understand the resource and its potential.  Droughts and water scarcity create tensions over scarce water resources and exacerbates conflict and fragility within and across Kenya, particularly in the borderlands. To address these challenges and to build the resilience of vulnerable communities, tapping and equitable use for the country’s groundwater potential is key. Read More…

This project was executed in response to the community concern on intensified greenhouse farming in the upstream catchment and rapid development of boreholes affecting the base flows in the middle and downstream areas. The catchment covers about 290 km² and classified as Arid and Semi-Arid Land (ASAL) therefore, experiences highly variable and unreliable rainfall amounts with up to 2000mm in the highlands and as low as 400-800mm in the lowlands. The aim of the project was to establish the relationship between groundwater and surface water hence put in place measures that will ensure water availability to all through better development of water resources and improve catchment management practices.

This project incorporated geophysical, hydrogeological, hydro-chemical and hydrological investigations so as to determine the influence of groundwater on baseflows. Baseflows can be defined as the least amount of water available in a stream or river during a dry period.

 

The project was conducted in the Kilimanjaro area on the Kenyan side, Chyulu hills, Lake Jipe, Lake Chala and the major springs. The objective of this project was to conduct water resources assessment to quantify water in the project area,  understand the groundwater flow with respect to the surface water interaction, determine recharge zones for purposes of conservation and protection and establish the relationship between surface and groundwater resources in the Mt. Kilimanjaro, Lakes Jipe/Challa, Mzima and Chyulu Hills Ecosystems. Isotope hydrology is a nuclear technique that uses both stable and radioactive environmental isotopes to trace the movements of water in the hydrological cycle. It can be utilized to determine areas of recharge, age and residence time of water, origin/source of water, pollution/contaminant sources. It is a technique which can help to improve water resources management and in this case groundwater resources through conservation and protection of recharge areas, applying pollution mitigation measures in areas discovered to be sources of pollution, improved groundwater development and governance.