Harnessing Earth Observation for Groundwater Monitoring in West Africa and the Sahel
ESA GDA Water Resources collaborated with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Bilateral Maroobé Network (RBM), a transnational pastoral and herders organisation in West Africa, to deliver EO-based assessments of groundwater status and availability, improving water governance and supporting RBM’s efforts to inform pastoral and agropastoral households.
Description
Water is at the heart of many challenges in the Sahel. A key source of conflict is the competition between two groups: farmers cultivating crops in semi-arid environments and transhumant pastoralists moving seasonally in search of pasture and water for their livestock.
Groundwater represents a critical resource in this context, especially for sustaining pastoralism and enhancing drought resilience. Northern regions and Sahelian countries are arid and depend heavily on groundwater for irrigation and livestock. Many urban areas also rely on groundwater for supply, but face significant issues such as contamination from industrial and agricultural waste and saltwater intrusion in coastal zones.
The ESA GDA Water Resources initiative developed a spatial and temporal assessment of groundwater status and availability (at monthly, seasonal, annual, and multiannual scales), complemented by precipitation data from 2003–2024 across eight West African countries. These datasets were combined with RBM’s field data on water-related tensions, livestock concentrations, water availability, and the status and types of main water sources at the municipal level.
This integration strengthened RBM’s core service of providing up-to-date information on water and fodder availability, enabling pastoralists to manage herd movements more effectively and helping to reduce conflicts over water and grazing resources.
You can read more about this Case Study here: How innovation can resolve conflict in the Sahel