Somalia is located in the Horn of

WATER SOURCES INFORMATION MANAGEMENT FOR SOMALIA

Presentation by the Somali Center for Water & Environment (SCWE) in

collaboration with the Somalia Water and Land Information Management Project (SWALIM)

funded by EC.

Somalia is located in the Horn of

Africa, and has borders with

Kenya, Ethiopia,

Djibouti, Gulf of

Eden and Indian

Ocean.

• Somalia has

suffered Civil War and repeated,

prolonged droughts since 1991.

• Lack of Central Government has

halted development and has had a

detrimental impact on Natural Resource

• Thousands of families are

living as IDPs inside the

country.

• Many more

have fled out of the country and live in the

Diaspora.

• Somalia’s population of an estimated 9

million are

concentrated in the major urban centers.

• These population centers are

concentrated along the Juba and

Shabelle Regions in the South.

• With the exception of the riverine areas

Somalia is an arid to semi-arid zone

• low rainfall of about 200mm annually in the arid regions

• about 700mm

annually in the semi- arid areas.

• Somalia economy is based on livestock

and crop production.

• The agricultural

sector is the major

employer, with about 60% of the Somali

people directly

dependent on this

sector for their daily livelihoods.

Water is a scarce commodity and is the major limiting factor for

food production in Somalia.

• Except close to the rivers, Groundwater is the major source of water supply in the in Somalia.

• Lack of planning,

adequate management and limited development, has lead to over-

exploitation and

degradation of this most valuable of Somalia's

Resources.

• A less immediate impact of the Civil War has been the destruction and loss of Somalia’s archives.

• This has significant implications for Somalia’s recovery, hampering development, planning and resource management

• In recognition of the need for high quality water information to support decision making,

• The SWALIM project, in cooperation with other local and international institutions is attempting to recompile the water data archives and

Water Sources Information System

• Developed under SACB Water Sanitation and

Infrastructure Committee for use by network of field partners including UN, NGOs and Somali authorities.

• Focus on measurable supplies vs dynamic demands, with emphasis on groundwater supplies (strategic

boreholes, wells and springs) since where water is the limiting factor (and the worse case is serious drought) permanent supplies are the priority.

• Core indicator reporting (quantity, quality, coverage,

continuity and cost) allow for analysis and reporting on performance of the water sector at various spatial

scales.

Water Source Taxonomy

Source Definition

•Dug Well

•Borehole

•Spring

•Dam

•Berka

•Other – Generic

Attributes

Conceptual Model for Field Network Information Resources Unit

Water/Land INFORMATION

WAREHOUSE (DATA MANAGEMENT) COLLECTIONDATA

(FIRST ANALYSIS)

DATAFLOW

DISSEMINATION

SACB Relief/Rehabilitation Decision Support for PLANNING / ACTION

VERIFICATION (LAB) VERIFICATION

(FIELD WORK)

ANALYSIS

FEEDBACK

PUBLISHING

•Primary field data input to Information Resources Unit for management

(verification, storage, analysis and

dissemination)

•Feedback loop critical to buy in of field

partners

•Dissemination is

Tools Developed to Date

• Operational Database –

with upload to GIS/spatial analysis

• Interface based on Excel - distributed to partners

with Field Data Sheets

• Manuals – Use of

Software, Field Data Collection and

Results to Date

• Primary data sets for much of Somalia (5000 + water points including strategic boreholes).

• Backed up by secondary information (200 reports, maps, etc.).

• Production of basemaps and reports for various areas (eg. Groundwater potential and water sources for the Juba valley) to allow for targeted rehabilitation.

Relevance to Workshop Aims

• Provides platform for access and dissemination of groundwater information.

• Enhances societal interactions through network of developers and users (UN, NGOs, Somali

authorities and civil society (eg. SCWE) and allows for targeted implementation.

• Good quality water resources information

underpins development of policy, regulation and law in the post war environment.

• Provides platform for analysis of environmental