Honorable Deputy Minister, Madam Ambassador, Mr. Chairman PS Eng Stower, Distinguished Partners, Friends, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen,

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1 World Bank Statement Rafik Hirji May 29, 2012 Thank you Mr. Chairman. Honorable Deputy Minister, Madam Ambassador, Mr. Chairman PS Eng Stower, Distinguished Partners, Friends, Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a great pleasure for me to be here today at this Opening Ceremony for the Africa regional consultations for the GEF project on Groundwater Governance from a number of perspectives. Let me elaborate. First, groundwater is emerging to be a strategic development issue for Africa. Hydrogeologists, groundwater managers, and researchers have been aware of the emerging threat to groundwater resources but, until recently, the wider development community has focused on neither the creeping Silent Revolution a term coined to highlight the rapid development of groundwater that is largely unplanned, unmanaged and unregulated nor its broader poverty alleviation potential. Both the global water community and global environmental community working on climate change have an opportunity to take action on this important strategic development issue. Given its important role in urban development, water supply, food security and climate change adaptation, and its broad poverty implications, groundwater is simply too big a development issue to be allowed to fail. This underscores the importance of this global project and regional consultations for SSA starting today.

2 Second, as the main early architect of this GEF project Groundwater Governance: A Framework for County Action the World Bank is very grateful to FAO as well as UNESCO and IAH, for stepping up and advancing its implementation. The project concept was conceived in 2006 in response to a request from the GEF to prepare and implement the project. In 2007, the Bank with support from many partners prepared the PDF A and expanded the initial scope of the project from a medium sized project to a full sized project. In 2008, the Bank requested FAO to take it over and lead its further preparation and implementation. Third, the Bank continues to support this project in several ways, including the preparation of a thematic paper on groundwater and climate change adaptation options, five national case studies on groundwater governance that reviewed governance challenges in 19 aquifers, economic and sector work on groundwater governance and policy and through participation in the project steering committee and participation in regional consultations. The thematic paper on groundwater and climate change explores potentially significant adaptation opportunities provided by groundwater. Groundwater provides an important adaptation option for climate change. Its unique characteristics natural storage, wide availability, long retention time and slow aquifer response mean that groundwater systems are more naturally buffered against seasonal and inter-annual variability in rainfall and changes in surface temperatures. Also, unlike surface water storages, aquifers lose negligible water through evaporation and transpiration and so provide a more secure source of water for humans and ecosystems. Deeper systems respond relatively slowly to inter-annual variations and so provide a buffer against

3 the increased variability brought by climate change. There are numerous no-regrets management actions available for enhancing adaptation capacity. Planned conjunctive use and managed aquifer recharge (MAR) are techniques that increase climate change adaptation, but both require strong governance structures to be implemented successfully and safely. This Bank thematic paper is completed and a published document. The five national case studies were analyzed using a structured governance framework that was developed by GWmate and refined on the basis of Ostrom et al, the guru, who has studied common property (pool) resources. The framework integrates top down national policy, legal and institutional issues and bottom up issues as the aquifer level and integrates climate change adaptation opportunities from the Bank s thematic paper of the subject. Three out of the five groundwater governance case studies for South Africa, Kenya and India have been completed. The South Africa case study is available on the website of the South African Water Research Commission and the case studies for Kenya and India are posted on the World Bank s water website. The case studies for Tanzania and Morocco are in final stages of review. Practical findings are emerging from these case studies. Follow up actions are described below. The ongoing economic and sector report explores the paradox of groundwater governance that a resource as huge and important as groundwater has been so difficult to manage in both the developed world and in developing nations and remains so heavily under-funded by the development community. The sector work aims to better understand and address the paradox at the heart of groundwater governance in order to elevate the need for

4 investing in and promoting proactive reforms towards its management. It examines the impediments to better governance of groundwater, and explores opportunities for using groundwater to help developing countries adapt to climate change. The sector work is advancing and expected to be completed by end of June Fourth, as part of the Bank s contribution for this project, three national consultations were held to support and review the draft groundwater governance case studies for South Africa, Kenya and Tanzania in November and December 2010 in Pretoria, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, respectively. I am very pleased to see many colleagues including managers and staff from various government agencies, authors, experts and other participants who were in those consultations here today. I hope that they will share their expertise, experiences, knowledge and follow ups they have undertaken at this regional consultation. Fifth, the Tanzania and Kenya groundwater governance case studies have contributed towards important practical follow up actions. In Tanzania, under the over $ 1.2 billion Water Sector Development Program supported by the Government, the World Bank and other partners, nine (9) basin water offices are being strengthened and 9 integrated river and lake basin development and management plans are under preparation. BWO capacity strengthening includes capacity for groundwater management. The basin plans focus on the development and management of surface and groundwater systems. The Tanzania case study is also influencing work on strategic aquifers including a detailed $ 6 million assessment of the newly discovered deep Kimbiji aquifer for Dar es Salaam and the design of the first phase development

5 of the aquifer, as well as the management of Makutopora aquifer, the only source of supply for the Capital city Dodoma. In Kenya, the Bank s support for the water sector is growing from the soon to be completed ($ 165 m) Water Supply and Sanitation Project (WaSSIP) to the recently approved ($ 320 m) Additional Financing for WaSSIP as well as the ongoing Natural Resources Management Project. This support is likely to further increase significantly to the tune of $ million through the new Kenya Water Security and Climate Resilience program (that is under preparation and expected to be implemented in phases). Through dialogue, investment planning and knowledge sharing, the understanding about and appreciation of the critical role of groundwater as a vital water resource is shifting rapidly in Kenya. The soon to be completed water supply master plan for Nairobi and Satellite Towns funded jointly by the Bank and AFD includes a broader recognition of the growing role of groundwater in the Metropolitan area and the need to manage it better. The earliest interventions recommended under the master plan will include the assessment and exploration of two new well fields at Ruiru and Kiunyu and specific recommendations for managing groundwater and surface water. The Bank s Natural Resources Management Project has conducted a study to understand recharge mechanism for the Kikuyu Springs, a small but the most reliable source of water supply for Nairobi. A similar study is planned for recharge mechanism for the Mzima Springs, a key source of supply for the chronically water short Coast Region. The recently initiated work under the Coast Region Water Supply masterplan will include further assessment of the Baricho aquifer,

6 Tiwi aquifer, Marere Springs, and Mzima Springs all of which are groundwater based or groundwater dependent systems and Mwache dam. The work will also include investigation of deep ground using oil and gas exploration data from the Ministry of Energy and other geophysical investigations. The successful lessons learned from the discovery of the new deep Kimbiji aquifer in Dar es Salaam will be applied to the water supply master plan work for the Coast region. Good governance will be key to sustainable use and development of groundwater. Sixth, I am very pleased to learn that the Government of Kenya s specific recommendation to JICA to put a much sharper focus on groundwater in the update of the National Water Master plan has yielded positive and significant findings in the form of new and extensive aquifers recently discovered in Turkana. Seventh, I am also informed that the successful application of the governance framework used to analyze the four South African aquifers under the South Africa governance case study is being extended to the review of other aquifers in the country. That fact illustrates the practical value of a useful tool and approach. Eight, the follow up SADC project Sustainable Groundwater Management in SADC Member countries that the Bank is preparing with other partners is building on the lessons and achievements of the initial project, including the new Groundwater Management Institute, and integrating lessons from the thematic paper on groundwater and climate change and some findings from the groundwater governance case study work. I have highlighted a few of the important developments taking place in Africa on groundwater development and management. It

7 is important for this regional consultation to draw from the broad range of ongoing and new developments, experiences and opportunities and knowledge emerging from the continent and to define distinct groundwater development, management and governance needs of Africa. The recent British Geological Survey report findings highlighting the presence of vast groundwater resources in Africa, the recent announcement about vast groundwater sources in Turkana and the discovery the deep Kimbiji aquifer indicates that (a) there is a lot that we do not know about the continent s water resources and (b) that new and innovative approaches that combine oil and gas exploration data and technologies, use of radar systems, satellite systems with traditional geophysical investigations can pave the way to opening up exciting frontiers in African water resources development and management. I thank you all for your attention and wish you well for a highly successful regional consultation.