Why Groundwater Protection Should Be a National Priority in Drought Strategies

A recent study in Nature Sustainability (2025) on the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna Delta found that unsustainable groundwater-fed irrigation during dry seasons reduces flood risks but increases surface freshwater scarcity and saltwater intrusion in coastal regions.

While heavy groundwater pumping supports dry-season agriculture and leads to higher aquifer recharge during monsoon seasons, this recharge is insufficient to offset depletion, creating a vicious cycle:

🔹 Groundwater depletion ➡️ reduced surface runoff ➡️ less surface water for farming ➡️ increased groundwater dependence.

💧 This means that although groundwater use may temporarily reduce flood risk, it undermines long-term water security and resilience to drought.

Key takeaways for drought management:
✅ Groundwater protection must be a clear priority in national drought strategies, rather than a resource to exhaust during crises.
✅ Integrated management of surface and groundwater resources is essential for resilience.
✅ Farmers need support to improve water-use efficiency and adopt practices that reduce dependency on excessive groundwater pumping.
✅ Expansion of agriculture in coastal deltas must consider sustainable recharge strategies to prevent seawater intrusion and further freshwater scarcity.

🌍 These findings are globally relevant, as human pressures and climate change increasingly threaten freshwater systems in coastal and deltaic regions.

✍️ How can countries balance food security with groundwater conservation in drought management plans? Let’s exchange experiences and lessons to strengthen our collective drought resilience.

📖 The link of study:
👉 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01566-0

#DroughtManagement #Groundwater #NatureSustainability #WaterSecurity #UNCCD #CLP

Combating Desertification in Africa : Zainer’s Contribution to SDG 15 (Life on Land)

Zainer is a low-cost machine for climate resilient agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions.

The Zainer is a vertical soil drill, mounted on a two wheeled cart and powered by a small 5hp petrol engine. Excavated soil is deposited on the down-stream side of the Zaï pit to make sure that run-off water from the field is directed into the pit for local infiltration. The design of the Zainer has been optimized for fuel efficiency and drilling speed to minimize the operational costs for the farmer.
Operating the Zainer can be comfortably done by both female and male farmers. Depending on the soil conditions, farmers are able to produce up to 17 Zaï plantholes per minute and 1 ha of land can be prepared within 5 days (compared to 300 hours of labor for manual Zaï). The drill bit can easily be replaced and be adapted to different soil conditions and desired plant hole dimensions.
Due to climate change, rainfall patterns in Africa have become less predictable. As a result, African farmers are experiencing production losses for their main rainfed crops. This climate instability, combined with increasing land degradation linked to desertification, poses a serious risk to food security and family incomes, particularly for smallholder farmers.
Indigenous conservation and regenerative agriculture practices can largely mitigate these risks and help combat desertification, but farmers consider these traditional practices too labor-intensive and economically unviable.
Affordable mechanization of climate-smart agricultural practices can overcome these drawbacks. An organization called Practica has therefore initiated the development of a simple tool to quickly and inexpensively produce small basins or pits for local rainwater retention. This tool is called "Zaïner," in reference to the traditional West African practice of creating small planting holes, called Zaï.
This innovative tool aims to strengthen the resilience of soils and farmers in the face of desertification and climate change.

Combating Desertification in Africa : Zainer’s Contribution to SDG 15 (Life on Land)

Zainer is a low-cost machine for climate resilient agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions.

The Zainer is a vertical soil drill, mounted on a two wheeled cart and powered by a small 5hp petrol engine. Excavated soil is deposited on the down-stream side of the Zaï pit to make sure that run-off water from the field is directed into the pit for local infiltration. The design of the Zainer has been optimized for fuel efficiency and drilling speed to minimize the operational costs for the farmer.
Operating the Zainer can be comfortably done by both female and male farmers. Depending on the soil conditions, farmers are able to produce up to 17 Zaï plantholes per minute and 1 ha of land can be prepared within 5 days (compared to 300 hours of labor for manual Zaï). The drill bit can easily be replaced and be adapted to different soil conditions and desired plant hole dimensions.
Due to climate change, rainfall patterns in Africa have become less predictable. As a result, African farmers are experiencing production losses for their main rainfed crops. This climate instability, combined with increasing land degradation linked to desertification, poses a serious risk to food security and family incomes, particularly for smallholder farmers.
Indigenous conservation and regenerative agriculture practices can largely mitigate these risks and help combat desertification, but farmers consider these traditional practices too labor-intensive and economically unviable.
Affordable mechanization of climate-smart agricultural practices can overcome these drawbacks. An organization called Practica has therefore initiated the development of a simple tool to quickly and inexpensively produce small basins or pits for local rainwater retention. This tool is called "Zaïner," in reference to the traditional West African practice of creating small planting holes, called Zaï.
This innovative tool aims to strengthen the resilience of soils and farmers in the face of desertification and climate change.

I noticed this publication
Drought in Europe April 2025 : GDO analytical report
Toreti, A., Bavera, D., Acosta Navarro, J., Barbosa P, , De Jager, A. et al., Drought in Europe – June 2025 – GDO analytical report, Publications Office of the European Union, 2025, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/1544910

The open accessed Abstract is:
Drought conditions are affecting large parts of central, northern, and eastern Europe as well as northern Africa, the eastern Mediterranean, and the Middle East. Recent above-average temperatures in western Europe have exacerbated the effects of the prolonged lack of precipitation, particularly on soil moisture. Low flow conditions in river discharge are detected mostly in eastern Europe, in the Baltic Sea region, and in some rivers of Türkiye. Impacts on vegetation are emerging in eastern Europe. The already affected areas are mostly in the Mediterranean region. Seasonal forecasts point to a warmer than usual 2025 summer with dry conditions in a very large region extending from the UK to the Black Sea.
An EU link is: https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/188cbe48-4dbd-…

The man who stopped the desert : Yacouba Sawadogo

“For turning barren land into forest and demonstrating how farmers can regenerate their soil with innovative use of indigenous and local knowledge.”

Yacouba Sawadogo (1946-2023) was known as “the man who stopped the desert”. Starting around 1980 during a phase of severe drought, he successfully created an almost 40-hectare forest on formerly barren and abandoned land. Today, it has more than 60 species of trees and bushes and is arguably one of the most diverse forests planted and managed by a farmer in the Sahel.

Sawadogo’s remarkable success builds on experimenting with traditional planting pits for soil, water and biomass retention, called “zaï” in the local language. He continued innovating the technique over the years, increasing crop yields and successfully planting trees. Despite facing resistance from locals in the beginning – Sawadogo was called a “madman” and saw his forest set on fire – he never considered giving up. Over time, people came to admire his work.

Always eager to share his knowledge, Sawadogo trained thousands of visitors from the region and beyond, and empowered farmers to regenerate their land. As a result, tens of thousands of hectares of degraded land have been restored to productivity in Burkina Faso and Niger. Those who adopt Sawadogo’s techniques often become food secure, as zaï help to conserve rainwater and improve soil fertility. Trees planted together with the crops serve to enrich the soil, produce fodder for livestock and create business opportunities like beekeeping. This helps farmers adapt to climate change, reduce rural poverty and prevent local resource and water-related conflicts.

The man who stopped the desert : Yacouba Sawadogo

“For turning barren land into forest and demonstrating how farmers can regenerate their soil with innovative use of indigenous and local knowledge.”

Yacouba Sawadogo (1946-2023) was known as “the man who stopped the desert”. Starting around 1980 during a phase of severe drought, he successfully created an almost 40-hectare forest on formerly barren and abandoned land. Today, it has more than 60 species of trees and bushes and is arguably one of the most diverse forests planted and managed by a farmer in the Sahel.

Sawadogo’s remarkable success builds on experimenting with traditional planting pits for soil, water and biomass retention, called “zaï” in the local language. He continued innovating the technique over the years, increasing crop yields and successfully planting trees. Despite facing resistance from locals in the beginning – Sawadogo was called a “madman” and saw his forest set on fire – he never considered giving up. Over time, people came to admire his work.

Always eager to share his knowledge, Sawadogo trained thousands of visitors from the region and beyond, and empowered farmers to regenerate their land. As a result, tens of thousands of hectares of degraded land have been restored to productivity in Burkina Faso and Niger. Those who adopt Sawadogo’s techniques often become food secure, as zaï help to conserve rainwater and improve soil fertility. Trees planted together with the crops serve to enrich the soil, produce fodder for livestock and create business opportunities like beekeeping. This helps farmers adapt to climate change, reduce rural poverty and prevent local resource and water-related conflicts.

Dear colleagues,

I want to share with you an interesting upcoming event that might be of value to our CLP community.

The GEO-WB6 online seminar will take place on June 25th, 2025 at 11:00 AM CET, featuring a presentation by Francelino Rodrigues from FAO Albania on the topic:

"Digital Agriculture and Rural Transformation (DART): Shaping Inclusive Digital Futures in Albania’s Countryside"

📝 Registration link: https://www.geo-wb6.net/events

This seminar is part of the GEO-WB6 initiative, which supports the development of geoinformation capacities in the Western Balkans to strengthen agriculture and natural resource management. More about the project: www.geo-wb6.net

The event is open to all – feel free to join if interested

Another year with long consecutive days without rain in Europe...
Will this affect the price of some major agricultural products from Northern Mediterranean region? For example, Spain is a main producer of cucumbers in EU, and Italy and Greece produce a large proportion of olive products (including olive oil) in EU.
Let us see the prices of such products say in the autumn, perhaps that will give a direct impression on how drought affects economy and our daily consumption.