Supply of Water from Boreholes:
Pressure State Response Indicators

Lack of adequate potable and agricultural water supplies inhibits the progress of developing countries and is the cause of considerable hardship to humans world-wide.

Pressures to increase livestock production result in efforts to increase productivity on existing land (intensification) and /or in bringing new land into production. In arid, semi-arid and sub-humid livestock production grazing systems in particular, a common technology response involves the development and use of artificial sources of water, normally through the use of boreholes. This utilises available groundwater and enables the expansion of livestock grazing on an annual basis across all suitable grazing resources that are within the "travel distance" of livestock from individual boreholes.

The major impacts resulting from groundwater abstraction for livestock include:

- Local changes in natural vegetation as a result of changes in grazing / browsing pressures. On a wider, regional scale, this also results changes in species abundance and diversity;
- Aquifer depletion

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