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Could Groundwater Detection Tool Provide Off-Grid Supplies?

For many UK businesses, water supplies are relatively straightforward, with a mains connection or established piping linking the premises with the source. However, this is not always the case.

For companies close to water infrastructure, it may be simple enough to get connected and while problems like leaks can occur, they should mostly be simple enough to rectify.

These issues are relatively simple in comparison with the challenges faced by those in remote locations, where an off-grid water supply may be the best or only way to meet their needs.

Some kinds of water-intensive firms do this already, such as breweries or distilleries that use wells or can tap a local stream, which, thanks to its location, may be free from significant pollution.

In the case of those who use wells, the supply is obvious and known, although there can be a problem; what if the underground source dries up, or if the company wants to increase production and needs more water than the currently available source can supply?

An Icy Solution To A Subterranean Water Search?

This is where a new tool developed by University College London and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) may come in very useful. Originally, this was used in scientific research on the world’s coldest continent as a means of measuring the rate at which ice shelves melt in the Polar regions.

Using radar, this could penetrate deep below the solid ice and detect liquid water underneath, which was useful for helping measure melting rates. But a tool that can use such means to discover running water under a layer of solid material has an obvious potential use elsewhere in finding hitherto unknown groundwater supplies.

The Government Office for Technology Transfer (GOTT) is now funding the BAS to explore the use of this tool in some very different environments from the frozen wastes. Instead, research is focusing on areas described as being under ‘water stress’, where communities struggle to access clean drinking water.

Not only do these tend to be in hotter countries where supplies are often made scarce by a dry climate (apart from monsoon seasons in some cases), but a lack of infrastructure and extreme poverty also frequently act as a barrier to the ability to access clean water.

Why The Tool Should Make A Difference

Some might imagine that the solution is simply to dig a deep enough hole and a well can be established, but that is not the case, not least as a low water table in a dry region will mean the ground is often or even always too dry to provide such a supply on a year-round basis. In hot, dry climates, the hard-baked soil does not absorb moisture easily when the rains come.

The fact is that while underground water sources will exist, they are not everywhere. That means a lot of money, time and energy can be spent in drilling and digging speculatively until water is finally located.

What the BAS hopes is that the radar tool will be able to locate groundwater sources more easily, aiding the 83 per cent of people living in the Middle East and 74 per cent residing in south east Asia facing water stress, as well as non-governmental organisations engaged in drilling for wells.

Municipal authorities may also benefit as they can use the tool to monitor water quality and spot water theft.

Welcoming the support of GOTT in the project, Director of innovation and impact at the British Antarctic Survey Beatrix Schlarb-Ridley said: “We’re thrilled that a technology originally developed to study environmental changes in Antarctica can now help with water shortages caused by climate change.”

Just under £100,000 has been provided by GOTT for the research, which may be a small price to pay for transforming so many lives.

How The Tool May Be Used In Developed Countries

Away from the developing world with its vast populations, increasingly water-stressed climates and limited water infrastructure, it may be asked whether there are useful applications for such a tool in wealthy, advanced countries where the climate challenges are not as pronounced and the water infrastructure is greater.

Of course, some wealthier countries have hot climates and face increasing stresses, such as Spain or Australia. The latter country uses little groundwater at present, making it more vulnerable as it gets drier, although there is great variation in rainfall.

The challenge in countries like the UK may be less pronounced, not least as the drier areas in the south and east already use a lot of groundwater. However, even in these regions, more surface reservoirs are planned as the climate gets drier and the population grows.

In other areas, however, the ability to find new and previously unknown groundwater sources using radar could enable those who need an off-grid water source to identify and access it much sooner, saving time and money in the process.