Water access, sanitation, and security remain key foci of international aid and development. However, the increasing interconnectedness of hydrologic and social systems can cause water initiatives to have unexpected and cascading effects across geographic scales. This presents new challenges for geoscientists working in water development, as distant and complex socioeconomic and environmental relationships, or “telecouplings,” may significantly influence the outcomes and sustainability of development projects. We explore these emerging concepts through a case study in Ethiopia, which receives over half of its annual budget from foreign development assistance and is currently experiencing rapid population growth and environmental change. Using examples from the literature, we identify water development aid initiatives in rural and urban settings and at local and national scales. We then situate these within the telecoupling framework to reveal underlying social-hydrological relationships. Our results indicate that water development is linking Ethiopia’s hydrology with geographically distant communities and markets and creating new and often unexpected flows of people, material, and capital. These are resulting in cascading impacts and cross-scale feedbacks among urbanization, geopolitics, and the water-food-energy nexus in East Africa. We conclude with a discussion of the strengths, limitations, and potential of the telecoupling framework for geoscientists and development practitioners.

Abstract Geologists from the U.S. Army Engineer District in Mobile, Alabama, have supported military water well drilling missions throughout the world. Many of these missions supported design requirements for Humanitarian Civic Action (HCA) wells but did not follow standard military water well construction practice. These design requirements have often been the result of local well construction regulations or the need for well yield that exceeded typical design. Each branch of our military has water well drilling capability, and most drilling systems are similar in depth and hole size ratings. Standard well completion kits for mobilization have been developed for construction of wells up to 455 m (1,500 ft) deep. Normal training for military well drillers has been limited, and the emphasis is on completion of a tactical, low-yield well where many potable well construction practices are not required. Humanitarian Civic Action well drilling missions have become an integral part of Nation Assistance exercises. Some HCA wells required special training, modifications to drilling equipment, and special well designs to meet the goals of the exercise. The probability of success had to be high for these missions to be approved. Consequently, civilian geologists were used to support the siting, well design, and procurement of materials. Some of these complex missions required on-site consultation. A specialized team of personnel including geologists, hydrogeologists, and geophysicists, designated the Water Detection Response Team, was assembled during the 1980s by the Corps of Engineers to site well drilling locations for military drilling operations and is used for many HCA missions.