Water and Politics in Africa

‘Day Zero’ and the possibility of it taking place was bound to bring up many questions, some of which remain unanswered. However, the main question will be why such an event was so close to taking place and what must be done so the possibility of it actually happening in the future can be avoided.  Since droughts ravaged the country a woman in Cape Town has started collecting rainwater to fill her swimming pool rather than relying on the state's water supply It’s easy to blame climate change for environmental consequences such as droughts and the reality of regular outbreaks of water crisis. However, in the case of 'Day Zero' climate change was not entirely to blame and it was actually the failure of local officials and the government as a whole for refusing to take responsibility to plan and mitigate for such droughts when the resources for doing so was widely available. This short film by the Cape Town Drought Response Learning Initiative highlights how this was a ‘gover...

Welcome back to the first part of my final two blog posts! I’ve decided to look at the political factors and implications of climate change on water in Africa for these final posts, as it’s very clear that climate change is the next if not already the biggest threat to human life on earth. Today’s focus will be the inequities that have been highlighted by the possibility of a 'Day Zero' in Cape town back in 2018.   In the 2017-2018 period, the city of Cape Town in South Africa was in the midst of a severe year-long drought and an impending water crisis. The possibility of a ‘Day Zero’ where the 4 million residents of the city would be completely shut out from water supplies in their homes looked more and more probable. This ‘Day Zero’ was anticipated to take place on the 13th of May 2018, when all of the city’s dam levels would have reached a capacity of under 13.5% (Millington and Scheba, 2020) . Graph showing the level of water stored in Cape Town's 6 largest reservoirs...

Hello! Today’s post will look at the cooperation on Africa’s transboundary groundwater resources and aquifers.  ‘Many of Africa’s groundwater resources are stored in approximately 40 transboundary aquifer systems’ (Scheumann & Alker, 2009).  Groundwater resources in the past may have been conventionally only used for minimal water use but as the demand for water increases the need for better transboundary aquifer management also increases (Altchenko and Villholth, 2013). There is also increasing shortages and changing quality seen in surface water, thus many turn to groundwater resources to keep up with demands from a rapidly growing population and to keep the agricultural sector afloat in Africa. However, this has led to the over-pumping of these aquifers which mean possibilities of some countries not having enough water available for themselves and risks of conflicts arising between these transboundary countries (Hayton and Utton, 1989).  Locals in Africa measurin...

Hello and welcome back to my blog! These next few posts will move away from the Nile Basin and focus on case studies in Nigeria. This particular post will look at the politics surrounding the creation of upstream projects at the detriment of floodplains.  Floodplains are essential ecological and economic resources but the benefits they bring to local communities are not recognised enough. The continuous push to carry on with upstream projects has an adverse effect of diverting floodwater away from these wetlands that are critical to bringing economic benefits to so many (Barbier and Thompson, 1998) . Residents fishing in the Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands A brief summary on the various resources that floodplains bring to communities is that they provide food and income through fishing, vegetation for livestock and fuelwood resources and water for irrigation and domestic power and use. The soils in floodplains are more fertile than upland soil and thus brings agricultural benefits too. An e...