Deploying a participatory approach for surveying the complex geohydrological system and defining the status of the groundwater resources in the Kunzila catchment area has crucial importance towards conjunctive use of its water and land resources for sustainable economic growth, social well-being, and environmental protection. Several initiatives are being undertaken to pilot the ‘Integrated Landscape Management and WASH’ project in this community to implement evidence-based approaches. A comprehensive hydrogeological study has been carried out to understand the hydrogeological system, propose ecosystem restoration measures, identify suitable locations for drilling boreholes and design a groundwater and surface water monitoring network.
The first results pointed out the central area of the catchment as holding the best potential for groundwater abstraction, a productive Late Quaternary basalt aquifer. As this area is in use by private floriculture farms, several other borehole locations were sited to meet the domestic and livelihood demand across the watershed. In addition to the drinking water supply goals, the project proposed catchment intervention for soil and water conservation based on the Landscape Approach and 3R measures implementation - Retain, Recharge, Reuse. Such measures include but were not limited to riparian vegetation restoration, terracing and contour bunds, agroforestry, controlled grazing, etc. A telemetric monitoring network has been designed and installed to support the conjunctive management of shallow and deep groundwater water resources, streams and Lake Tana, together with a functional dashboard for data registrations and sharing. The monitoring program gauges the impact of groundwater abstraction and the quality parameters.