GROUNDWATER 101: WHAT’S GOING WRONG?
Extreme Weather Events
Malawi is increasingly facing powerful cyclones, heavy rains, strong winds, and prolonged droughts—all signs of a new climate reality. These disasters are displacing communities, destroying homes, and damaging vital infrastructure—especially water systems. Floods wash away pipes, pumps, and boreholes, cutting off access to safe water. Often, these systems are rebuilt only to be destroyed again, trapping communities in an expensive cycle of loss and recovery.
With limited resources to respond, Malawi urgently needs investment in climate resilience to protect lives, secure water services, and break this cycle for good.
Degraded Catchments and Limited Recharge
In the 1970s, Malawi had about 4,000 boreholes. Today, that number has soared to over 62,000—evidence of rising groundwater demand. This surge calls for deliberate investment in capturing rainfall to recharge aquifers and sustain borehole supply. However, recharge is declining due to widespread deforestation, soil erosion, and increasingly erratic rainfall patterns. Traditional conservation methods like tree planting have often failed to restore degraded catchments.
One key reason is the lack of strong community incentives. Without ownership or tangible benefits, people are less likely to maintain these efforts. As a result, natural recharge remains low, leading to dry boreholes and increased use of shallow wells. Reversing this trend requires community-driven solutions that link environmental stewardship with local livelihoods and visible, long-term rewards.
Fragmented Groundwater Data Flows
Monitoring wells are essential for tracking groundwater levels, detecting early signs of depletion, and guiding smart water management. In water-stressed Malawi, they are a vital early warning system. But the system is failing.
According to government data, only 16% of the 100+monitoring wells are functional—mainly due to vandalism and neglect. This is driven by weak community stewardship and fragmented data flows between villages and national level. This leaves decision-makers in the dark when insight is needed most. Rebuilding the system requires local engagement, streamlined data sharing, and investments in long-term functionality.
Limited Technical Capacities
In Malawi, local governments often lack the technical capacity to properly supervise borehole drilling. Frontline staff typically lack training in groundwater development, leaving them unable to enforce standards. While drillers are often blamed for poor-quality work, many operate under unfair contracts that encourage cutting corners to save money.
Compounding this further, access to locally specific groundwater knowledge, standards and information remains limited or unclear at the local level. The result is a system where communities receive boreholes that fail due to poor construction, leading to a loss of public trust in safe water services. Fixing this requires training, fair contracts, accountability mechanisms, and access to clear groundwater guidelines.
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