AfricanWaterPolitics

Over the course of these blogs, the dynamics of politics involved with water supply and provision have been explored. The role of governments, private companies and citizens have all been explored during these blogs with the aim of providing the reader with a sense of the factors at play with how water is provided, through a political lens. The overarching theme from all the blogs is how a government (or indeed governments) can best provide for the needs of their populations and the best solutions for the problems at hand now and in the future. Let us recap what has been covered: Climate change projections and initiatives to mitigate against said risks, the case for and against privatisation of water supplies, an insight into transboundary waters and the conflict and latterly the cooperation that it entails and lastly the idea of Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) and its' applicability to Africa. Climate Change:  In the 2 blogs done on climate change, we examined the ...

There are many different methods employed to manage water resources. Many approaches in the past have been a top down approach but since the 1990s a new way to manage water has been sought after. Integrated Water Resources Management aims to involve all aspects of society and as such is a more inclusive initiative based on equity and cooperation. IWRM: Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is defined by the Global Water Management Partnership as a "process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximise economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems and the environment." Savenjie and Van der Zaag ( 2008 ) outline the 4  principles  as agreed at  International Conference on Water and the Environment (ICWE) in Dublin, Ireland in 1992:  - Water is a finite, vulnerable and essential resource which should be manage...

This blog shall explore the issues of Transboundary Waters and in particular the inherently political dynamic which entails said theme. In order to examine the political dynamics of Transboundary Waters, this blog shall use the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) as a case study to exemplify and illustrate the points of contestation and cooperation. Figure 1 : https://www.water.ox.ac.uk/filling-the-grand-ethiopian-renaissance-dam-seeking-middle-ground-on-the-nile/ UN Water states that Transboundary waters are the basins of rivers and lakes as well as aquifers that are shared between two or more countries .  Transboundary Aquifers are particularly pertinent to Africa because as many as 60% of the African population lives within the confines of a transboundary aquifer.  Around two-thirds of the world’s transboundary rivers do not have a framework for cooperative management ( UN Water, 2018 ) hence explaining the the implied complexities in optimal ...

The provision of water is a key political issue for all countries and especially so in many African countries. In the previous blog, a case was made for privatisation of water supplies in African countries, specifically drawing upon the case study of Gabon -  an example where privatisation has been a  relative success. This blog shall make the case against privatisation using the case of Guinea as an example before drawing a conclusion of the case for privatisation as a whole.  Figure 1: ( https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/3201/economics/profit-maximisation/ ) It may be argued that privatisation is not the best means of supplying water to African countries because there is limited evidence to suggest it improves provision or cost effectiveness. Sceptics of privatisation argue that water supply is a natural monopoly - a market whereby one firm or producer dominates the market because the barrier to entry into the ...

The issue of water provision is a key political concern to all countries in the world, not least countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Privatisation can be described as a shift in ownership of the water supply organisations. In general, this means transferring provision of water supply to the private sector and away from the public sector although there are various implementations which have varying degrees of private sector engagement. These can range from short term (up to 5 years) service or management contracts to 20 year concessions to permanent divestiture arrangements. Currently, privatised water supply arrangements are most prevalent in Francophone countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, perhaps a lasting legacy of French colonialism in that it mirrors similar arrangements in France.  The first part of this blog shall explore the case for privatisation and the accompanying concerns before looking at case study of Gabon to assess whether privatisation of water supplies is desirab...

In the previous blog, climate change and its impacts were discussed with particular emphasis on groundwater levels. To that effect, the last blog looked at the potential impact of reduced groundwater levels on food security and water access. In this blog, we shall identify and assess some strategies that may help mitigate against the risks of climate change by looking at some case studies from Malawi, Zambia, Niger and Ethiopia to see how both government and local initiatives work in practice. The strategies vary in nature from inclusivity driven economic initiatives, government led socio-economic initiatives and initiatives designed to address the physical geographical causes of risk. As mentioned in the previous blog, Africa is particularly vulnerable and sensitive to Climate Change ( Niang, 2014 ). Indeed, it is projected by the end of the current century that there will an increase, on average, of 3-4 Celsius ( Carter and Parker, 2009 ) which will likely increase the intermittenc...

The second of my blogs will focus on climate change and specifically the impact it has upon groundwater levels with extended focus on the accessibility for the people of African countries. This blog shall outline the effect climate change has on temperatures and thus rainfall before assessing the impact on groundwater supplies. Additionally, this blog shall assess the potential socio-economic impacts of increased variability in rainfall and groundwater levels as a result of climate change. In particular, this blog aims to highlight the political challenges that impacts of climate change bear in the future. Climate Change: It is estimated that temperatures in particularly sub-Saharan Africa will increase dramatically and well beyond 20th Century extents and projections. Indeed, by 2080 it is projected that there could be a 4% rise in temperature by 2080 compared to 1980 levels ( Niang,2014 ). The increase in average temperature is likely to cause a depletion in air moisture whi...