water stress in Seychelles

When I thought of looking at case studies I was very unsure where to start, no surprise really considering the amount of countries to chose from. Therefore instead I decided to chose my destination according to places that have a relevant status in accordance to freshwater. Now looking at these three places I have chosen: Brazil, Sub Saharan Africa and Australia, I've just realised by accident I have chosen three areas with three different development statuses.

Sub Saharan Africa being a developing region, Australia as developed and Brazil as an emerging economy. Even before realising this I was already thinking of doing my last case study blog on my very own Seychelles, and quite wonderfully this fits in perfectly as adds in a new status :  a small developing island state (SID): a middle income country. This is probably not that much of a big deal but seeing as I am studying geography everything kind of links back to the development status, and I might also relate back to this as well in another blog. 

But first lets have a look at the freshwater case in the Seychelles: 

                                          I'm not showing off or anything :D

Water supply in Seychelles is primarily from river sources, combined with groundwater extraction and desalination plants in some locations. Water distribution on the three main islands: Mahe, Praline and La Digue is extensive, serving more than 87% of the population with treated water supply. Despite these efforts, water restriction are common on the three main islands. The technical executive and project director of dams, hydropower and undergrounds works, Gibbs, noted: the islands are experiencing water shortages, with only 60% of the current demand being met on average (Boralho, 2013).The water shortage crisis is worse during the dry season (June to November), with water restrictions and rationing being more frequent and consistent in recent years. Why is this? Lets first take a look at the climate change. 

Climate change: 

Seychelles like many other small island states, has been affected by climate change which includes a shift in weather patterns of rainy and dry seasons. There is strong evidence that under most climate change scenarios, water resources in small islands are likely to be seriously compromised (SNCCS, 2009). Results from four global circulation models, indicate that climate change is expected to increase the severity of water shortages on Mahé, Praslin and La Digue because of the following factors : 

• decreases in rainfall during the dry southeast monsoon which will reduce stream flow, groundwater recharge and therefore water supply

• increases in surface air temperatures which will increase rates of evapotranspiration and consequently reduce stream flow, ground water recharge and further exacerbate the water supply problem

• and increases in rainfall intensity which will result in greater surface runoff and reduced water capture in existing storage facilities. 

Data from Seychelles national climate change strategy shows that annual rainfall anomaly trends on Mahe for the period 1972- 2006 are upward by 13.7 mm a year from the average annual rainfall of 2,200 millimetre, indicating a wetter climate.  

                                     annual precipitation anomalies for Mahe : 1972 1997

However as Payet and Agricole (2006) note : a warmer and wetter climate for the Seychelles will not necessarily translate into a greater availability of water. Dry spells are likely to be longer, and precipitation events more intense. These predicted changes will affect water supply adversely because of greater variation in stream flow (SNCCS, 2009). At the moment the water supply system is highly vulnerable to meteorological conditions which are becoming increasingly variable as a result of climate change. However if there were adequate storage capacity to transfer water resources from the wet to the dry season the situation the vulnerability to climate change in Seychelles would not be as intense (UNDP, no date) which leads us onto our human factors. 

Human factors

The issue of insufficient storage facilities is constantly being raised by the general public in the Seychelles. The main reservoir that supplies water to the population on the main island of Mahe (where I live) is La Gogue dam can presently hold one million cubic metres of water. During the rainy season the dam often fills to the brim and then overflows, causing the loss of water which during the subsequent dry season is then sorely missed. Added to this  a high percentage of water – about 44% – is unaccounted for and, therefore, lost, owing to an ageing reticulation system. 

                                                         La Gogue dam 

So what we see here is humans being to blame for the water insecurity as a result of underinvestment in water infrastructure. Consequently a dam which was built in 1976 is still the major supplier to a population which has grown to  90,000 and furthermore in addition to on average 200,000 tourist arrivals a year. However physical factors has partly to blame for the lack in water storage in Seychelles. 

Physical factors: 

Because of the hilly topography of the Seychelles islands it is difficult to create sufficient storage capacity at reasonable cost.  Furthermore groundwater resources are limited as not much water is stored at the feet of the hills and the water available is often hard and contains traces of salt (Feow, no date). 

However the limited opportunities to expand storage capacity should not be a complete obstruction to the development of better storage capacity especially as continuous population growth, tourism activities and other commercial developments will result in an increase of 6% to 8% a year in the estimated demand for potable water in the Seychelles, meaning at that rate, the current water supply will soon be exceeded. 

                 Mahe projected Daily water demands, yields and shortfall in supply (revised October 2004)

  Thankfully the Seychelles government has finally decided to expand the capacity of the main water storage dam by at least 60%. The work is 'believed' ( don't know about actually happening) to start next year and construction of the project is estimated to take up to 3 years. Although building a second major dam would be more substantial to sustain water resources in the future this option for the time being has been put aside due to the cost involved. Seychelles Public Utilities corporation is also hoping to boost its desalination capacity to cope with emergency situation, linked to freak patterns (La blache, 2014).

In conclusion it is apparent to see that climate change has definitely affected the water supply in Seychelles. However the inefficiency of the provision of water as well as the decline in water service quality has no doubt been generated by the underinvestment in water supply infrastructure which has been under increased pressure from increase in population, tourism and industry. Therefore time will only see whether these new improvements will redeem the periodic water problem in Seychelles, which in my view is equally a result of climate change as it of human influence.