water scarcity in Sub Saharan Africa

Despite the progress of some countries, Sub Saharan Africa as a whole still lags behind most regions of the world when it comes to water access, management and supply. For those of you who don't know where Sub Saharan Africa is, I have so kindly provided a image of where it is. So it is basically the area that lies below the Saharan Desert. 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 40% of all people without access to safe drinking water live there, with some 300,000 people deprived of a clean water source (UNDESA, 2014). 

Despite Africa’s rainy equatorial zone, long rivers, great lakes and vast shores, water is unevenly distributed across the region. About 75% of sub-Saharan Africa’s water resources are concentrated in eight major river basins. More worryingly, climate change  have considerably reduced fresh water quantity here over the past 20 years. Even though it is the continent least responsible for climate change it is particularly vulnerable for its effects. 

The Intergovernmental Panel of climate change reports that climate change in Africa has manifested itself in more intense and longer droughts in the subtropics and tropics, while arid or semi-arid areas in northern, western, eastern, and parts of southern Africa are becoming drier and more susceptible to variability of precipitation and storms (DFID, 2009). As a result most countries in the region are under severe water stress.

BUT BUT BUT there is hope!  Although changes in climate happening 5000-5500 years ago meant aquifers were last adequately filled 5000 years ago there has recently there has been a discovery! In 2012 researchers from the British geological survey and University college London ( that's my uni !! ) for the first time ever managed  to map in detail the amount and potential yield of water  in aquifers and found that countries currently designated as  'water scarce’ have substantial groundwater reserves!!! hurrayyy 

But ( sad but this time) even though there has been found to be  sufficient groundwater to support many low yielding water supplies for drinking and community irrigation the big concern is over exploitation (McGrath, 2012) hence leading us onto our human factors. 

Human factorssss
Water exploitation is already a big issue in Sub Saharan. But its the incentives for overuse which are among the most damaging especially concerning groundwater extraction. For ground water, once the pump is installed, the policy of many countries is to only constrain removal based on the cost of electricity, and in many cases subsidise electricity costs for agricultural uses, which damages incentives to conserve such resources. Additionally, many countries within Africa set the cost of water well below cost-recovery levels, thus discouraging efficient usage and threatening sustainability (Jaglin , 2002). 

                                                                                        Land grabbing in the future has been pointed out by experts to become another major cause of  water shortage over the next coming years. These  property deals between sub-Saharan African countries and foreign companies often entail selling rights to inland water resources. As property acquired in such a manner is mostly used for extensive, water-demanding agricultural activities (that often entail deforestation), ‘land grabbing’ further jeopardises water supplies and, in countries like Ethiopia or Sudan, worsens the effects of already endemic water scarcity (Grain, 2012).

Water in Sub Saharan Africa  is not only scarce due to exploitation, bad management,  wastage and climate change but it is also of exceptionally poor quality. Due to pollution as well as unreliable supply and sanitation infrastructure, only a small percentage of what little water is available can be used for human consumption. Almost half of all Africans suffer from water-borne diseases, with cholera and infant diarrhoea the most frequently occurring sicknesses.

The water stress caused by inadequate sanitation tends to reach critical levels in regions with higher population densities. The rapid urbanisation process ( at a rate of 5% - highest in the world) currently underway in sub-Saharan Africa is therefore expected to worsen the situation. Currently 1 billion people live in urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa and, according to the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), that figure is expected to rise by 50% by 2030 (Lewis, 2014).

So to sum up water scarcity in Sub Saharan Africa has clearly suffered the effects of both climate change as well as human factors.  However in my opinion the biggest cause of this water scarcity is due to human factors, and more specifically poverty. The fact that the majority of Sub Saharan Africa suffers from economic scarcity back up this point. This poverty constrains many cities in this region from providing clean water and sanitation services and preventing the further deterioration of water quality even when opportunities- such as the newly founded groundwater reserves -exist to address these water issues.However ironically although this widespread poverty and low levels of development are impeding sub saharans Africa ability to cope with climate change and hence making it more water stressed, in the future it is is this economic development that is going to exarcerbate its water issue further! However as opposed to the current issue being mostly economic scarcity as a result of the inability to supply the water, future water stress here will  mostly be physical water stress  of not being able to meet increase in demand.