Challenges in groundwater resource management in coastal aquifers of East Africa: Investigations and lessons learnt in the Comoros Islands, Kenya and Tanzania

Acknowledgments This research was funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council NERC, the Department for International Development DFID-UKAID, the Economic and Social Research Council ESRC; UPGRO Grant No NE/L001888/1: towards groundwater security in coastal East Africa. Geophysical data acquisition in the Comoros was funded by the French Development Agency AFD: project GECEAU CKM1068. We acknowledge stakeholders and community members from Grande Comore, Kilwa district and Kilifi Region for their active and fruitful participation in the focussed group discussions and questionnaire surveys. We are grateful to Bonventure Obeka and Stanley Wanjala (MA Sociology students at Pwani University) for assistance throughout the project, to postgraduate and undergraduate students from the Universities of the Comoros, Dar Es Salaam, Pwani and Kenyatta and interns from the Comoros Water Directorate DGEME for assistance in field data acquisition. We thank Isaac Marobhe (University of Dar Es Salaam) for assistance and the loan of field equipment, as well as Peter Karanja Gathu (Kilifi District Water Agency), Magai Kakuru (Kilwa District Water Department), Mahabadi Boinali (Comoros Water Directorate DGEME), Youssouf Ben Abdallah (Comoros Community Representative CIGEO) and Simon Onywere (Kenyatta University) for contributions to the final workshop discussions. We also acknowledge the assistance of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA) and particularly the late Joseph Mutua for his technical and logistical expertise and untiring assistance through fieldwork in Tanzania and Kenya. We are finally grateful to the Reviewers and Editorial Board of the journal for their valuable comments and suggestions that helped improving the quality of the manuscript.