Presented by Dr. Karen Villholth of IWMI at the International Forum on Solar Technologies for Small-Scale Agriculture and Water Management on April 13, 2018 at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy. The presentation draws on groundwater research done in Africa, including the article "Mapping irrigation potential from renewable groundwater in Africa – a quantitative hydrological approach:" https://cgspace.cgiar.org/handle/10568/58399

1. Solar Irrigation and
Groundwater Management
Karen G. Villholth
International Water Management Institute
13th April, Rome, Italy

2. 2

4. GLOBAL GROUNDWATER FIGURES
• 41% of irrigated area from GW
• 16 to 19% of area supplied by unsustainable GW use
• 21 to 27% of GWA for irrigation is from unsustainable
abstraction
• 14 to 17% of global food production from GW is
unsustainable

5. GLOBAL FOOD PRODUCTION FROM GW DEPLETION
Cereal Production

6. 6
The
hidden
drought

7. Groundwater
irrigation
potential in
Africa
Environmental
groundwater requirements
represents 50% of the
recharge
(Altchenko and Villholth, 2015)
of the area
irrigated with
groundwater in
2005

8. Categorization of
groundwater assessment
units in India (2013)
Arsenic risk in SEA
EAWAG, Winkel et al., 2016.
http://www.eawag.ch/en/research
/humanwelfare/drinkingwater/wrq/
risk-maps/

9. Solar Water Pumping Knowledge Base
Source: The information shown in this map
is not exhaustive. Based on knowledge
resources listed (PCNs, project reports,
articles, technical studies, case studies) -
Solar Water Pumping Knowledge Base,
The World Bank Group, 2016.

10. LOCAL MANAGEMENT OPTIONS
• Simple GW monitoring
• Permitted crops
• Acreage allowed
• Depth of wells allowed
• Irrigation timing

11. Grundfos Lifelink ()

12. CONCLUSIONS
• SPI needs to be Groundwater-Smart to be Climate-Smart
• Present approaches piecemeal, unrealistic, poorly
informed, and insufficient, delinked from technology
and promotion
• Recommendations:
– Provide targeted guidelines
– Develop simple calculation tools for sustainable crop production
– Develop GW-Smart SPIS technologies
– Conjunctive use and enhanced GW capture and storage
– Capacitate at all levels

13. References
• Altchenko, Y. and Villholth, K.G, 2015. Mapping irrigation potential from renewable groundwater in
Africa – a quantitative hydrological approach, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19, 1055-1067.
• Bloomberg New Energy finance, Q1 2017 Off-grid and mini-grid market outlook,
https://about.bnef.com/blog/off-grid-mini-grid-q1-2017-market-outlook/
• Central Ground Water Board, 2016. Annual Report 2015-2016. Ministry of Water Resources, River
Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Government of India, http://cgwb.gov.in/Annual-
Reports/Annual%20Report%202015-16.pdf
• CGIAR Research Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems (WLE), 2017. Building resilience through
sustainable groundwater use. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute
(IWMI). CGIAR-WLE. 12p. (WLE Towards Sustainable Intensification: Insights and Solutions Brief 1).
DOI: 10.5337/2017.208.
• Climatescope 2017, 4Q 2017 Off-grid and mini-grid market outlook, http://global-
climatescope.org/en/off-grid-quarterly/q4-2017/
• Closas, A., and E. Rap, 2017. Solar-based groundwater pumping for irrigation: Sustainability,
policies, and limitations. Energy Policy, 104, 33-37.
• Winkel, L., Berg, M., Amini, A, Hug, S.J. and Johnson, C.N., 2016. Predicting groundwater arsenic
contamination in Southeast Asia from surface parameters. Nature Geoscience, Vol 1.
• The World Bank, 2016. Solar Water Pumping Knowledge Base, The World Bank Group, 2016.
http://www.worldbank.org/en/data/interactive/2016/12/08/solar-water-pumping-knowledge-
base
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