In March 2025, Umvoto was commissioned by the Southern African Development Community Groundwater Management Institute (SADC-GMI) to undertake a project on determining the dependency and vulnerability of groundwater in coastal cities, using Cape Town and Dar es Salaam as case studies.
Coastal cities are becoming increasingly reliant on groundwater due to rapid urbanisation, population growth, and limited surface water resources. Consequently, coastal cities face a heightened risk of groundwater degradation due to saltwater intrusion, pollution from human activities, over-exploitation, and the effects of climate change.
Climate change, in particular, acts as an impact multiplier, exacerbating existing stresses and hazards. Altered precipitation patterns, rising temperatures and changes to groundwater recharge rates directly impact water resources and the communities that depend on them. These conditions can further drive demand among users and can ultimately increase groundwater dependency and the vulnerability of both users and groundwater resources.
Goals of the SADC-GMI project
The project aimed to improve the sustainable use and management of groundwater to build on the resilience of these urban centres under changing environmental conditions. To achieve this aim, the study pursued several key objectives to ultimately develop conjunctive management strategic action plans for the two coastal cities. These objectives were to:
- Assess groundwater reliance
- Assess resource and user vulnerability
- Evaluate pollution, over-exploitation and climate change impacts
- Integrate socio-economic and gender considerations
- Assess governance and institutional capacity
- Foster collaboration and knowledge sharing.
Once completed, the vulnerability and dependency assessments, followed by the conjunctive management strategic action plans, were presented to key groundwater stakeholders through validation workshops hosted in Cape Town and Dar es Salaam. Valuable feedback from workshop participants was integrated into a set of conjunctive management strategies for each of the cities. Overall, the development of these strategies provided those involved with the management and governance of groundwater with actionable management tools to protect water resources and improve groundwater management and coping capacity of both user and resource.
Private water vendor in Dar es Salaam (left). Groundwater scheme development integrated among agricultural holdings in Cape Town. (right)
Cape Town (left) and Dar es Salaam (right) Stakeholder Validation Workshops.
