Introduction to the Water Paradox in Africa

    Hello and welcome to my blog! This blog will explore the water paradox in Africa through study cases of different countries, in relation to the constant environmental change we witness around us. Before I present you with different study cases showing extremes of the water paradox, we will explore the concepts and their impacts in Africa. 

 

Water in Africa 

When hearing about water in Africa, there is a consistent pre-conceived idea of this subject, which Is part of a greater idea of what Africa is. This is accurately highlighted in Binyavanga Wainaina's sarcastic work ‘How to Write about Africa,’ where the reader can easily recognize the author’s stereotypical words used of a generalised Africa associated with, poverty, tropical, against sustainable development and more importantly, ‘hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving.’

Now, the first key point to understand water in Africa is to dismantle the idea of seeing Africa as a whole. When observing a map of average annual precipitation in Africa (Figure 1), it is clear that there is a vast range of precipitation across the continent, which is most visible in North-West Africa with a range from 0-100mm to over 3000mm. Furthermore, a study from the Environmental Research Letters has demonstrated that the groundwater from aquifers are highly productive in many regions of Africa, where the most accessible parts are in Central Africa due to its low depth, compared to the abundant groundwater in the Sahara that cannot be accessed with a simple hand pump given its high depth. (Figure 2) With all this water mass, a clear question comes up: why is the water proportion in Africa so unbalanced?

Figure 1 : Average Annual Precipitation, 2014 Figure 2 : Aquifer productivity for Africa and approximate depth                                                                               to groundwater  

 

The water paradox in Africa 

The water paradox can be described as understanding water scarcity, stress, and imbalance of its distribution. More importantly, the paradox lies in attempting to understand why in continents such as Africa, water management is inadequate, despite this resource being vital. (Barbier, 2019) This can be approached on a continental scale but also on individual countries internally. An example would be the impact of the water paradox in Kinshasa, where the country fails to provide 10 million inhabitants with water, despite being a water-abundant country, due to insufficient water disposal and distribution systems, causing severe floods and erosion in certain regions. Now, it is widely argued that the most convenient long-term solution to solve this issue would be to introduce modern technologies and tools that better collect and store water, as this would be efficient in cases of water scarcity and stress but also to reduce wider issues such as food insecurity. However, each case study that will be introduced tends to have specific circumstances important to discuss that prevent such development, ranging from physical conditions to governance issues.

 

Environmental change in Africa 

 

Like the rest of the world, environmental changes have a significant impact on the water trends in Africa. The most apparent consequence is global warming, where there is a substantial increase in average surface temperature in the 21st century compared 1901-2000. (Figure 3) These impacts, primarily imposed by climate change, increases the pressure on water sources worldwide, and is worsened by the rapidly growing global population. Furthermore, environmental changes have require significant economic funds, as it is estimated that climate-related disasters cost the worldwide economy $329 billion dollars in 2021, being the most expensive year recorded. It is important to note that many countries in Africa endure the largest economic losses due to weather related events, despite accounting for less than 3% of the greenhouse emission and climate crisis since the industrial era. This clearly demonstrates the climate injustice in Africa that is truly existing worth mentioning.

 

Figure 3 : Yearly surface temperature compared to the 20th-century average from 1880–2021. Blue bars indicate cooler-than-average years; red bars show warmer-than-average years.

As a result of these notable impacts environmental change causes the water trends, it is important to view this subject as a defining factor on the future impacts water will have in Africa. Furthermore, I expect to have many different subjects such as food, politics and more to be involved when discussing the water paradox in relation to environmental change in Africa. This can also lead to subjects that can be more accurately studied that will be mentioned in the upcoming posts.