Lack of continuous qualitative and quantitative groundwater data for groundwater management within the Congo Basin
The Congo Basin (CB), home to the world’s second-largest river basin and tropical rainforest (Laraque et al., 2020), holds significant groundwater resources (Kasongo-Numbi, 2008; MacDonald et al., 2012; Tourian et al., 2023). Despite the abundance of surface water within the region, groundwater is a crucial source of freshwater for the vast majority of the CB’s population. It plays a vital role in sustaining human consumption, particularly for the rural population, also, for ecosystems and agriculture even though the latter is still rainfed. Domestic water use constitutes the first sector that withdraw the large amount of groundwater in the basin. The water withdrawal is projected to grow significantly due to the human population that is expected to double by 2050 in Africa (Partow, 2011, United Nations, 2019). Additionally, considering the emerging importance of the global change due to climate change and environmental alterations that have already affected surface water within the basin (Reed and Miranda, 2007; Wongchuig et al., 2023), groundwater is likely to become a critical resource for future development in the region. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a sustainable groundwater management. However, groundwater management in the CB faces numerous challenges.
