Education for Sustainable Development: The STEM …
583
no poverty; SDG 2: no hunger) and groundwater quality (SDG 6: clean water). The
study concludes that direct payments to farmers to support basic farmers income
in the European Union, coupled with subsidies and investment grants has raised the
level of pesticides in groundwater (Slabe-Erker et al. 2017). This finding implicates a
problem of insufficient management of agriculture-environmental balance, requiring
future refinement to achieve the EU goals on SDGs.
In Africa, despite the significance of the potential impact of climate change on
water resources, a lack of adaptation measures to climate change, due to insufficient
institutional capacity and sluggish economic development, is a daunting challenge
to the attainment of SDG 13: climate action. Costly and unsustainable, surface water
resources in Africa, consisting mainly of rivers and dams, are the only vital water
resources. Looking to the future, groundwater resources remain the only reliable
alternative yet to be available (DWA 2009, 2011). Groundwater is the only vital
source of baseflow in most of South African perennial rivers, including the Olifants
River (DWA 2013), providing for livelihoods in agriculture and domestic use for
rural communities, especially in the Olifants River basin. However, climate change
and groundwater contamination may pose threats, on which proactive research and
adaptation remain elusive. Other water-related hazards of climate, such as droughts
and floods, exert serious implications and complications for African countries’ sustainable development (Nkhonjera and Dinka 2017). On this, Ziervogel et al. (2014)
noted that research in climate change can be improved by addressing the following
two issues: (a) the knowledge gaps related to inadequate impacts assessment and
insufficient quantification of the socioeconomic costs of climate change and (b) the
institutional challenges that make it difficult for organizations, in both the public and
private sectors, to work and collaborate effectively to meet the country’s adaptation
needs to climate change. This observation is equally pertinent to many other river
basins worldwide, including the Mekong River systems and several large river basins
in northern China.
Worldwide conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater is a common practice in many irrigated agricultural regions, such as California, India, and Spain (Singh
2014; Scanlon et al. 2016). Groundwater plays two important roles in these systems.
Firstly, groundwater increases total water supply for both agriculture and other sectors. Secondly, it enhances supply reliability by providing a stable buffer against
uncertain surface water availability caused by climate variability and imperfect irrigation system management. Extensive research has been conducted over recent decades
to quantify the buffer value of groundwater, including that in India (Palanisami et al.
2012). For California, Foster et al. (2017) quantified the impacts of low well-yields
on the reliability of groundwater to buffer against variability in surface water supply. The economic value of groundwater in conjunctive use systems is evaluated
through a case study of tomato production in California’s Central Valley. The study
concludes that groundwater should not be considered an unconstrained substitute for
surface water as aquifer depletion has led to significant reductions in well-yields.
Further, farmers with limited well-yields resources face increased production risk
and higher profit volatility because available groundwater extraction rates are insufficient to satisfy crop water demands when surface water allocations are low during
583
no poverty; SDG 2: no hunger) and groundwater quality (SDG 6: clean water). The
study concludes that direct payments to farmers to support basic farmers income
in the European Union, coupled with subsidies and investment grants has raised the
level of pesticides in groundwater (Slabe-Erker et al. 2017). This finding implicates a
problem of insufficient management of agriculture-environmental balance, requiring
future refinement to achieve the EU goals on SDGs.
In Africa, despite the significance of the potential impact of climate change on
water resources, a lack of adaptation measures to climate change, due to insufficient
institutional capacity and sluggish economic development, is a daunting challenge
to the attainment of SDG 13: climate action. Costly and unsustainable, surface water
resources in Africa, consisting mainly of rivers and dams, are the only vital water
resources. Looking to the future, groundwater resources remain the only reliable
alternative yet to be available (DWA 2009, 2011). Groundwater is the only vital
source of baseflow in most of South African perennial rivers, including the Olifants
River (DWA 2013), providing for livelihoods in agriculture and domestic use for
rural communities, especially in the Olifants River basin. However, climate change
and groundwater contamination may pose threats, on which proactive research and
adaptation remain elusive. Other water-related hazards of climate, such as droughts
and floods, exert serious implications and complications for African countries’ sustainable development (Nkhonjera and Dinka 2017). On this, Ziervogel et al. (2014)
noted that research in climate change can be improved by addressing the following
two issues: (a) the knowledge gaps related to inadequate impacts assessment and
insufficient quantification of the socioeconomic costs of climate change and (b) the
institutional challenges that make it difficult for organizations, in both the public and
private sectors, to work and collaborate effectively to meet the country’s adaptation
needs to climate change. This observation is equally pertinent to many other river
basins worldwide, including the Mekong River systems and several large river basins
in northern China.
Worldwide conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater is a common practice in many irrigated agricultural regions, such as California, India, and Spain (Singh
2014; Scanlon et al. 2016). Groundwater plays two important roles in these systems.
Firstly, groundwater increases total water supply for both agriculture and other sectors. Secondly, it enhances supply reliability by providing a stable buffer against
uncertain surface water availability caused by climate variability and imperfect irrigation system management. Extensive research has been conducted over recent decades
to quantify the buffer value of groundwater, including that in India (Palanisami et al.
2012). For California, Foster et al. (2017) quantified the impacts of low well-yields
on the reliability of groundwater to buffer against variability in surface water supply. The economic value of groundwater in conjunctive use systems is evaluated
through a case study of tomato production in California’s Central Valley. The study
concludes that groundwater should not be considered an unconstrained substitute for
surface water as aquifer depletion has led to significant reductions in well-yields.
Further, farmers with limited well-yields resources face increased production risk
and higher profit volatility because available groundwater extraction rates are insufficient to satisfy crop water demands when surface water allocations are low during