Water and Politics in Africa

On reflection, my posts so far have been dominated by conflict. Although this was a purposeful direction, I realised this route may overlook more subtle political discussions regarding water in Africa. Therefore, to try produce a more expansive blog, this post addresses the community-based model of water management. Community management offers an empowering, decentralised form of water governance situating end users as active decision-makers ( Schouten and Moriarty, 2003 ). By transferring ownership to communities and bypassing ineffective states, community-management offers a more pragmatic form of water supply. However, research points to woeful operational failure rates of 30-60% within Sub-Saharan-Africa countries ( Baumann, 2006 ).  Figure 1: Village meeting for community water project ( Source: CED ) Community-management appealed to overstretched governments and NGOs where they could transfer responsibility of provision to users with a 'clear conscience' ( Harvey and Reed...

As the weeks have passed in writing this blog, my initial omission of sanitation became too blinding to ignore.  However, u pon reflection of how "water is life, but sanitation is dignity"  ( Thieme, 2018 ) , I've decided to  explore the 'poolitics' of sanitation in Cape Town and attempt to 'examine the unmentionable' ( George, 2008 ). Within Cape Town, approximately 500,000 citizens experience insufficient sanitary services. This is partly attributed to colonial social stratification which forced Africans to the peripheries with minimal infrastructural investment ( Laporte, 2000 ). Furthermore, rapid urbanisation has caused demand for municipality services to exceed supply ( Enqvist and Ziervogel, 2019 ). Consequentially, citizens are forced to inhabit lower rungs of the 'sanitation ladder'. As seen in figure 1, open defecation is common.  Figure 1: A child defecates along a motorway ( Masixole Feni, 2016 )  Recent sanitation policies such as the ...

Following last post, I was curious as to how trans-national water bodies have been managed. After viewing Planet Explore's fascinating video below, I felt the River Nile serves as an interesting case study.   Video - River Nile geopolitics ( Planet Explore ) The River Nile (figure 1) passes through 10 countries in Africa serving a population of approximately 400 million. Referred to as the 'cradle of civilization', the Nile supports the water supply of over half of the basin's population. Irrigation dominates aggregate withdrawal at 75%, and is particularly crucial for Lower Basin countries where rainwater is limited ( Swain, 2011 ).  Figure 1: The River Nile (Source: Hel-Hama ) Due to rising demands and uneven power relations, the Nile is susceptible to the 'water wars' outlined previously. But how has the River Nile been managed? Historically, Britain's colonial interests prioritised river flow to Egypt ( Laki, 1998 ). However, the 1960 Permanent Joint Te...

Welcome back! My first blog addresses how the politics of water can be materialised into 'water wars' through an analysis of the Lake Chad basin case study.  To start, meet  Gadaf Mahamat . He describes how his property was torched in a recent clash between local Arab herders and Mousgoum farmers. In turn, he lost everything. The cause? water scarcity in Northern Cameroon. Tensions arose over disagreements regarding use of a local reservoir. Similar conflicts result in millions of victims associated with the shrinking of the Lake Chad basin.   Figure 1: A soldier stood by Lake Chad ( Photo: Arno Trumper/ adelphi ) Lake Chad is situated between Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon (figure 2). Chronic droughts in the mid 20th century have caused the lake to shrink by 90% ( Mohanty et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, climate change threatens to increase rainfall variability, worsening water and food insecurity. Lake Chad's depletion has therefore resulted in 2.3 million people b...

Hello, and welcome to my blog on the politics of water and development in Africa! To begin, I must preface I have never visited Africa! Perhaps this is what spurred me to initially select this module. However, as satirically expressed by  Binyavanga Wainaina (2005) , Africa is often spoken about in a distorted sense. It is often simplified as if it were a single country, with homogeneous communities roaming across romanticized landscapes in search of a Western saviour. Therefore, upon reflection, in order to avoid potential generalisations, I'll engage with case-specific examples.   As a brief introduction, Africa entails the lowest % of national populations with access to 'at least basic drinking water services' ( WH0-UNICEF, 2017 ). This stark contrast within the global context is illustrated in figure 2 below.      Figure 1: 'Proportion of national population using at least basic drinking water services' ( WH0-UNICEF, 2017 ) Similarly, figure 2 illustrat...