EXPERIMENTING WITH PRACTICAL TRANSITION GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR THE URBAN POOR IN SUB SAHARAN AFRICA

The T-GroUp research project is one of the British funded UPGro Consortium Projects, bringing natural and social scientists from European and African universities to work with communities to move away from non-existent or unsustainable practices towards sustainable urban groundwater management by taking the interests of low-income urban dwellers into consideration. The main objectives of the project include an examination of relationships between above-ground (i.e. governance settings) and below-ground (i.e. geology and movement of water, pollutants, viruses and pathogens) systems. In addition, the project aims to establish multi-stakeholder platforms or social learning alliances to share strategic planning, and small-scale demonstrations to show the promise in making the transition towards sustainable groundwater management.

The project research sites are peri-urban areas or urban poor areas located in Bwaise in Kampala (Uganda), Dodowa on the Accra Plains (Ghana), and in the wards Sombetini and Unga Limited in Arusha (Tanzania).