Groundwater/surface-water interaction is receiving increasing focus in Africa due to its importance to ecologic systems and sustainability. In South Africa’s 1998 National Water Act (NWA), water-use licenses, including groundwater, are granted only after defining the Reserve, the amount of water needed to supply basic human needs and preserve some ecological integrity. Accurate quantification of groundwater contributions to ecosystems for successful implementation of the NWA proves challenging; many of South Africa’s aquifers are in heterogeneous and anisotropic fractured-rock settings. This paper reviews the current conceptualizations and investigative approaches regarding groundwater/surface-water interactions in the context of South African policies. Some selected pitfall experiences are emphasized. The most common approach in South Africa is estimation of average annual fluxes at the scale of fourth-order catchments (∼500 km2) with baseflow separation techniques and then subtracting the groundwater discharge rate from the recharge rate. This approach might be a good start, but it ignores spatial and temporal variability, potentially missing local impacts associated with production-well placement. As South Africa’s NWA has already been emulated in many countries including Zambia, Zimbabwe and Kenya, the successes and failures of the South African experience dealing with the groundwater/surface-water interaction will be analyzed to guide future policy directions.

Uno de los mayores problemas para obtener agua potable es la remoción de hierro en aguas de aljibes y pozos de agua subterránea. En este artículo se presentan los resultados del tratamiento del agua de un manantial con un contenido de hierro de 7,27 mg/L. Se encontró que la combinación óptima de tratamiento para hierro fue la de la coprecipitación con cloruro férrico y cal, aunque el tratamiento con alumbre y cal, con cloruro férrico, con permanganato de potasio y cal, y con cloro, también permiten la remoción requerida. | One of the main problems for obtaining drinking water is the removal of iron in springs and wells of groundwater. This article presents the results of the treatment of the water from spring with a content of 7,27 mg Fe/L. It was observed that the best combination of treatment for iron was the coprecipitation with ferric chloride and lime, although the treatment with alum and lime, with ferric chloride, with potassium permanganate and lime, and with chloride, also achieves the required removal.

This publication provides guidance to water-sector decision makers and planners on how to deal with the quality dimension of groundwater resources management in the World Bank's client countries. There is growing evidence of increasing pollution threats to groundwater and some well-documented cases of irreversible damage to important aquifers. This guide has been produced in the belief that groundwater pollution hazard assessment must become an essential part of environmental best practice for water supply utilities. The guide is particularly relevant for the World Bank's Latin American and Caribbean Region, where many countries have initiated major changes to modernize their institutional and legal framework for water resources management, but may not yet have considered groundwater at the same level as surface water, because of lack of awareness and knowledge of groundwater issues and policy options.

La adopción de un enfoque de economía circular para la gestión de aguas superficiales y/o subterráneas permite a los sectores y agentes mundiales encargados del agua lograr suministros seguros, sostenibles y de calidad para el futuro. La economía circular ha surgido como una herramienta y un marco que alinea los resultados económicos y ambientales. Dado esto, el presente estudio busca comprender la reutilización del agua bajo el prisma de la economía circular e investiga las oportunidades y los riesgos en el desempeño durante esa transición. Es un análisis cuyo método utilizado en la fase de investigación es el inductivo; en la fase de procesamiento de datos, el cartesiano, y en el informe, se emplea el método deductivo-inductivo. El argumento económico para adoptar enfoques circulares en la gestión de aguas subterráneas queda demostrado por el beneficio potencial de sus principios rectores, que retienen más valor en productos, componentes y materiales, manteniéndolos en uso por más tiempo y proyectando el tratamiento de los desechos desde el principio. La economía circular acontece, por tanto, como herramienta para alcanzar la sostenibilidad. | Adopting a circular economy approach to surface and/or groundwater management enables the global water sector to achieve safe, sustainable and quality water supplies for the future. Circular economics has emerged as a tool and framework that aligns economic and environmental outcomes. Given this, the present study seeks to understand the form of water reuse from a circular economy perspective and investigates opportunities and risks for water reuse with the transition to this economy. It is a research whose method used in the investigation phase is the inductive; in the data processing phase, the Cartesian, and in the report, that is, the deductive-inductive method is employed. The economic argument for circular groundwater approaches has been demonstrated by the potential benefit of its governing principles, which retain more value in products, components and materials, keeping them in use longer and planning waste from the start. Circular economy emerges, therefore, as a tool to reach sustainability.