Smart solar pumps use big data to stop Africa being sucked dry

High-tech solar pumps mapping underground freshwater reservoirs across Africa are collecting data that can help prevent them running dry, the project’s developers said on Tuesday.

Manufactured by British social enterprise Futurepump, the solar pumps are being used by thousands of small-scale farmers in 15 African nations, including Kenya and Uganda, as a cleaner, cheaper option to diesel and gasoline-powered ones.

The pumps’ sensors record real-time data such as energy usage and pump speed in each location, which is shared with the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to calculate groundwater extraction rates and levels.

“We fitted remote monitoring sensors on to our pumps for our own in-house reasons - for looking at their technical performance - and we’ve collected tens of millions of data points,” said Toby Hammond, Futurepump’s managing director.

“So this project is a really exciting opportunity to do something far richer with the data. We want to make it available for the good of the sector - for those advocating solar irrigation and those working to ensure sustainable water use.”

Many of the world’s major aquifers are stressed because too much water is being taken out for household, agricultural and industrial use and not enough surface water is seeping in to replenish the underground rock formations.

While more than 90 per cent of Africa’s agriculture is rain-fed, farmers are facing increasing rainfall variability due to climate change, say environmental experts.

To ensure food security for the continent’s 1.3 billion - and growing - population, countries need to manage their water resources more efficiently, from harvesting rainwater to maintaining aquifers, or underground water basins.

Studies by the Sri Lanka-based IWMI suggest that in many regions of Africa there is still much untapped and sustainable groundwater potential - particularly if recharge from the surface is managed.

But there is a shortage of local data to develop policies.

IWMI plans to use the data from Futurepump’s 4,000 pumps to calculate how much water is being extracted at any given time, which can help governments ensure it is used sustainably, with limits on extraction or a shift to less water-intensive crops.

“People often see solar pumps as ‘free energy’ ... They feel since it’s not going to cost extra to extract more water, it can be taken,” said IWMI’s David Wiberg, who uses tech to make water use more efficient.

“But once you put in place an information system like this, farmers will be able to see that pumping extra amounts of water is not helping them or their neighbours grow extra crops.”