Mar
11
Week 4: Does it get any worse in Africa?
March 11, 2008 | | 2 Comments
By Elmy Lung
The Chinese saying: “Added frost over snow”- meaning making a situation worse than it already is- spring into mind when speaking of Africa. True that it is one of the most resourceful continents, with a diverse and rich reserve of diamonds, oil, and precious minerals. But it is also a continent of misfortunes, underdeveloped and often struck by natural disasters, diseases, corruption, inter- ethnic conflicts and violence.
The continent can be separated into five main regions: North, West, Central, East, and Southern, covering all 53 African states. But when it comes to poverty, it knows no borders. Sub- Saharan Africa is one of the world’s poorest regions. Sub-Saharan Africa generally describes the area south of the Sahara- which covers a major area of the African continent: 42 African states in total. And lack of money in the area mean infrastructure such as dams and irrigation systems cannot be afforded to make water accessible in rural areas where most live. The unavailability of water creates a vicious cycle as: “Access to reliable, safe and affordable water is understood and accepted as a key step out of poverty for the world’s 800 million rural poor.”
The situation is little helped especially when drought occurs given there is already a lack of access to water, millions of lives are at stake. Just two years ago, the BBC reported that up to three million people in East Africa faced severe starvation because it hasn’t rained for months. Needless to say, the problem is not easily solvable without some international attention and aid.
But as the situation is ongoing and worsening, there is growing concern as to the responsibilities the global community should take up to providing aid for the second largest and populous continent after Asia.
In CNN’s Water Shortages may make Africa more aid dependent article, it cites predictions that up to 523 million people in Africa will not have access to clean water by 2025. To make matters worse, when farmers do not have enough water to grow crops, their crop yield will fall 23 percent. Food imports will increase, cereal imports alone will have to jump to 35 million tons in order to keep up with the demand and increasing reliance on food aid is expected. Of course the above prediction is set in the worst case scenario. More conservative reports such as the one produced by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)- a combined effort of over two thousand scientists spanning six years, approved by over 130 governments- estimates up to 250 million people to face water shortages in Africa by 2020. Even still, the report did emphasize that “Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change because of multiple stresses and low adaptive capacity.”
Surely the African Union is expected to be acting on this but a browse on the organization’s website, it seems that other issues bear higher priority. Particularly topics on democracy, human rights, economic growth, sustainable development and dealing with the widespread malaria and HIV/AIDS.
Of course, not everyone share the view that the water problem is a pressing issue.
Another UN publication, compiled by the UN Environment Program (UNEP) and the World Agroforestry Center in 2006, spoke of a “massive potential in rainwater harvesting” that will allow some states to meet their water demands. This includes primarily: Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe- all large states in Sub-Saharan Africa. The report concludes that “Africa is not water scarce…[it is]more of an economic problem from lack of investment, and not a matter of physical scarcity.”
Even if there is no single direct and satisfactory answer to the problem, the water shortage problem cannot be denied. I see it as a combination of politics, economy and climate change issues. The complexity of the problem should not put journalists off from reporting it. Instead, one should see the many possibilities and potential in writing in-depth articles on it. You can subscribe to WASH News Africa, a resourceful website I came across that contains various articles and links to water problems in particular African states. The website is relatively new but its contents are definitely building, perhaps a reflection that more people are now coming to realize the disastrous consequences of the problem.
Comments
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It would be interesting to see if there are examples of communities that have solved their water problems through rain water harvesting etc.
Hi Thomas, I do have examples of communities harvesting rain water but will be putting them up at a later post in the “solutions” section in a couple of weeks time together with other water saving methods. Cheers.