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WATER AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA - An African Position Paper
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| 3. WATER, NEPAD AGENDA, AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT |
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Water is integral to sustainable development. This is highlighted in what follows by examining the links between water and the sustainable development agenda provided by NEPAD, starting with three of the economic sectors which must provide the engine for development and improved social welfare.
Energy
One focus of the NEPAD program is the development of Africa’s energy resources. An important element of this is the development of the substantial, untapped, renewable resource represented by the hydropower potential of the river basins of Africa.
Assurance of the reliability and sustainability of water flows in Africa’s river basins is clearly a prerequisite for the success of the hydropower component of the energy plan. Experience has shown that, to achieve this, there must be proper management of the land and forestry resources within the river basin areas. Failure to do so could result in siltation of the reservoirs and reduce flows of water into the reservoirs.
Dams created for hydropower purposes pose social, cultural and environmental challenges. Water impoundments cause displacement of inhabitants of the inundated areas where the poor are often most affected, requiring special precautions. Proper resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced, planned with the participation of those affected, can significantly improve the impact of such projects on the poverty of the displaced people and may be preferable to other forms of compensation.
Without proper planning impoundments and other water developments may exacerbate health problems such as malaria, yellow fever, and bilharzia. Yet dams may also improve health conditions as discussed in the health section below. Impoundments by dams create changes in ecological conditions upstream and downstream of the dams. These changes may have beneficial or adverse economical impacts and need to be addressed in an integrated manner.
Aside from hydropower, other sources of energy, such as thermal power also depend upon water for production of the steam needed to drive the turbines. Similarly, traditional wood-based fuel depend upon water for the sustainability of the wood supply and for ensuring that deforestation for fuel wood does not occur, with all its impact on the environment, including the risk of contributing to the desertification process.
The energy programme to support NEPAD thus depends to a significant extent upon water for its success. It could, however, have an adverse impact on health, poverty and environmental initiatives unless appropriate attention is paid to mitigate any possible harmful side effects.
Transport
Transport is a vital focus area for NEPAD. In Africa, water-borne transport is of limited scope although it plays an important role in specific locations. Properly planned water resource development can however support river transport and help to maintain the effective functioning of coastal ports, thus contributing in a small but significant way to the achievement of NEPAD’s goals.
Agriculture
NEPAD recognises that agriculture is of central importance in Africa. It accounts for about 35 percent of the gross national product (GNP) of the region, 40 percent of its exports, and 70 percent of its employment. Agriculture should therefore be the engine of growth in rural areas where about 70 percent of Africa’s poor live. A key structural constraint to improvements in agricultural productivity is climatic uncertainty which increases the risks facing intensive agriculture in the continent.
Irrigation is a key to unlocking this constraint. This means, that security of agricultural productivity in Africa, depends heavily on the reliable availability of water. Although agriculture is by far the largest user of water in most African countries, in two-thirds of them, less than 20 percent of their irrigation potential has so far been developed.
To mobilise water for agricultural development, specific initiatives including the construction of storage and transport infrastructure will be required to make water reliably available. Yet many projects to develop water infrastructure to support agriculture have in the past been less than successful. This highlights the fact that water managers cannot simply concern themselves with water development. They have to ensure that their programmes are integrated with those for the other dimensions of agricultural development. For this reason, they will have to work with their colleagues in a collaborative manner; the land and water component of NEPAD’s agriculture and food security programme provides a framework in which to do this.
Agriculture can also impact on water resources. Both quantity and quality of water are limiting factors in agriculture which can itself have an adverse impact on the quality of water. In Northern Africa, irrigation in poorly drained areas has resulted in water logging, salination, and seawater intrusion in some areas. In other areas, irrigation has led to water quality deterioration. Notable examples are residuals from fertilizers and pesticides washed into receiving bodies of water, reducing their dissolved oxygen content and thereby affecting their fish productivity and their suitability for certain downstream beneficial uses.
This two-way link between water and agriculture must be recognized: water serves as a major and limiting input into agriculture and thus food security. At the same time, agricultural use of water can have a negative physical and qualitative impact on water bodies. Hence, appropriate attention needs to be paid to the use of water in agriculture if other goals of NEPAD are not to be undermined through agricultural use of water.
Access to Markets of Developed Countries
To achieve the goals of NEPAD will require substantial financial resources. The market access initiative under the section of NEPAD that deals with resource mobilization is thus highly relevant since it holds the key to enabling Africa to move to a position where it can fund and sustain its own development.
Nine priority areas have been identified under this initiative. In addition to agriculture which has already been discussed, this initiative also includes the areas of mining, manufacturing, and tourism. These all depend upon water availability and water quality, and on the availability of energy which may be derived from water, for their success. However, they are also areas whose development may create adverse impacts on the quality of water in the receiving environment unless such development is properly managed.
There is therefore a reciprocal relationship between water and the success of this initiative too. Indeed, one important thrust of this paper is that, correctly managed, water can contribute to the economic development that will in turn sustain the social and environmental needs.
Those in the productive areas have the potential to generate sustainable economic activities and should not be dependent on development aid in the long term for this reason.
Water and Sanitation
The objectives and actions envisaged under this component of the NEPAD program are all in the mainstream of water management. They reflect the attention that needs to be given to water to ensure that the water-dependent components of the program are not jeopardized.
Here water contributes both to the economic sectors as already outlined and to the social goals, some of which will be discussed below. The key areas on which NEPAD has focused are as follows:
Integrated Water Resource Management
It has been widely demonstrated that the effective management of water for economic and social development as well as for environmental protection requires an integrated approach. To achieve this, appropriate management approaches have to be developed at a number of levels, starting locally with water users, moving to catchment level and then to national and regional level. Since the water cycle occurs largely within naturally defined water catchments or river basins, it is important that management is structured to reflect this and, in the NEPAD context, to provide support to local, national and regional authorities to apply the IWRM approach.
Water resource management can include the construction of storage, control and water transport structures (dams and canals) but should begin with the assessment of the water resource and existing and future water uses and seek to identify options for reconciling any gaps that may exist between supply and demand. Attention must also be given to the system of allocating water between users which must provide both equity and security for users. For a managed water system to be viable, sound financial arrangements are also required which will usually require users to contribute to the costs of water management.
Management of Shared River Basins
A special case of integrated water management is the management of water in catchments which cross national boundaries. While there has been a focus on the conflicts that can result, the emphasis in NEPAD is on promoting cooperation between neighbours through the management of shared water.
Cooperative programmes such as the Nile Basin Initiative as well as cooperation in shared river basins in West and Southern Africa has demonstrated that a focus on cooperation through seeking to share benefits from water management and use rather than on focusing on conflicts between water users is likely to be more productive.
Disasters: Floods and Droughts
One area of focus in which cooperation is vital is in the mitigation of floods and droughts which are an inevitable consequence of the natural variability of the water cycle. This is a practical area in which sound water resource management and cooperation between neighbours sharing water resources are crucial.
Given the fact that there is a relatively small amount of storage and flow control infrastructure on African rivers, there are limits to the extent to which floods can be prevented and a reliable supply of water assured during periods of drought. It is therefore critical to mitigate the impact of such events by ensuring that agricultural and related activities are based on a sound understanding of the risks and that human settlements are located in a manner that does not leave them vulnerable to extreme floods.
The NEPAD programme envisages a strengthening disaster management capacity at continental and regional level and water management related issues will necessarily be an important component of this.
Climate Change
A sub-element of water management and disaster management is the impact of climate change on water resources. Current projections suggest that climate change, driven in part by human activity, is likely to include changes in mean temperatures and rainfall as well as increased variability in rainfall. This is likely to exacerbate the impact of natural disasters and, because of the potential scale of the impact, programmes to address it require special attention.
Such programmes will seek to identify the likely trends as well as the actions to be taken to mitigate them. These may range from encouraging a shift in the patterns of agricultural production to increasing storage in large dams for both flood control and water supply purposes. The funding of these activities, which are required because of human activity in other parts of the world will also require the development of special instruments which should reflect the origins of the problems.
Water Supply and Sanitation Services
The immediate focus for the water sector is necessarily on meeting the water related needs of the society. A key priority is to provide access to safe water for those without. As important, indeed it can be argued, a necessary precondition for meeting the social needs is to ensure that the water service needs of the economy can be met. The establishment of efficient and sustainable organisations to provide these high level water service needs is therefore critical and one area of focus for NEPAD is to support initiatives to ensure that water utility management is improved throughout the continent. Sound management is also essential if funding for investment in system expansion is to be obtained when required.
This initiative will also support the focus on meeting social needs for access to reliable basic water supply and sanitation services, particularly in Africa’s fast-growing large cities where people cannot rely on locally developed and managed solutions to meet their water needs. More generally, particularly for rural areas and small towns, programmes of support are required to promote best practice in the provision of services. Given the poverty of many of these communities, ongoing financial support will be required. Since the provision of water services is best managed at a local level, a community or local government focus is required.
A special area of attention is sanitation since without effective sanitation, water resources become polluted and cannot be used to meet the needs of the society. While large scale sanitation infrastructure may be required in large conurbations, dedicated programmes are required to promote improved sanitation in poor peri-urban and rural communities. The focus of these programmes should be as much on health and hygiene as on infrastructure provision because unless water and sanitation facilities are properly used, inherent health benefits will not be achieved. The “Water and Sanitation for Health” (WASH) programme approach is another area of NEPAD’s focus
Poverty Reduction
The water and sanitation programme provides a bridge between the economic and social focuses of NEPAD. While the specific objectives and actions identified under the poverty reduction component of the NEPAD programme do not show any direct linkages with water it should be clear that water has a critical role to play in poverty reduction.
Poverty is not just reflected in hunger, lack of shelter and being sick and not being able to see a doctor. It is also evidenced by losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water; or by the inability of rural people to sustain their farm and livestock production due to lack of water. There are many other linkages between poverty and water. The urban poor often live in the midst of swamps of polluted waters breeding mosquito vectors of malaria and filariasis (or elephantiasis). These polluted waters are also the sources of transmission of various water borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, polio and infectious hepatitis. The health consequences of these conditions result in loss of productivity, reduced incomes, and premature death that exacerbate poverty, and cause degradation of human dignity.
Both urban and rural poor often live in flood plains and are the most vulnerable to the impact of floods. The rural poor are often affected by water in other ways too. Children and women spend hours on end fetching water. The social and economic costs of such situations are enormous for the poor. The time spent fetching water from such sources adversely affects girl education and the economic productivity of women, for the cash equivalent of the time lost waiting for water adversely affects the productivity of the poor.
Inadequate water and unreliable rains often affect the viability of rural agriculture. In India and in parts of Kenya, rainwater harvesting has made a difference to the livelihood of the rural poor. The same can happen on a wider scale in Africa too. Indeed, it must be recognised that the contribution of water to economic activity and thus to improving the livelihoods of the poor is as important as its direct contribution to their health and dignity.
Based on such considerations, it is apparent that availability of water and the way waste water is disposed of have strong impacts on the NEPAD agenda for poverty reduction.
Health
The link between water and health is particularly clear. The first of the health objectives in the NEPAD program is to strengthen programs for containing communicable diseases. Safe water supplies can help achieve these goals.
Availability of enough safe water to meet the basic human needs is amongst the first prerequisite for promoting the health of all. The WHO has suggested a figure of 20 litres per person per day as the amount of safe drinking water needed to meet basic human needs.
On the negative side, the incidence of the water-related vector-borne diseases appears to be increasing. Of them, malaria is the most widespread. According to the World Bank, it results in over 900,000 deaths and up to 450 million cases annually in Africa, with children and pregnant women being the most vulnerable. Apart from HIV/AIDS, malaria is one of the most significant health problems in Africa, with enormous economic and social consequences. It is believed to account for an estimated US$1.7 billion annually in treatment and lost productivity. Construction projects often increase the population of the mosquito carriers of the disease, as they increate pools of water where they breed. Open drains and roof gutters often provide good sites for mosquito breeding.
Water projects can have beneficial side benefits. An example of this can be found in Ghana where a dam was constructed at a place called Kpong to produce tail waterpower downstream of the main Akosombo hydroelectric power project site. The resulting impoundment flooded rapids that used to serve as breeding grounds for the blackfly, the vector for riverblindness, or onchocerchiasis. This vector breeds in fast flowing waters. So the rapids at Kpong were good breeding grounds for the vector of the disease, and victims of the disease used to abound in the area some forty years ago. However, now, with the flooding of the rapids, the area is free of this disease.
Riverblindness is not just a health hazard in Africa. It is also an economic hazard. It affects Africa’s rural communities. In the past, rural people have abandoned large tracts of fertile agricultural lands for fear of being infected by the disease. The impact of this disease on poverty and on the rural economy has been enormous since 80 percent of Africa’s 600 million people depend upon farming for their livelihoods. The collaborative approach to the eradication of this disease has been one of the successes of the integrated approach to problem solving in Africa.
Some 25 million hectares of land have been made safe for cultivation and resettlement in ten West African countries since a control program for the disease was launched in 1974. This has made possible the feeding of 17 million more people. A second phase that will involve 19 more countries in Africa is expected to help wipe out the disease from Africa by 2010. The eradication program involves a partnership made up of some 30 African countries, a pharmaceutical company, 12 non-governmental organizations (NGO’s), 27 donors, and the four sponsoring agencies. The sponsoring agencies are the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).
A significant water-based disease discussed earlier under general infrastructure is bilharzias which may occur on a large scale in connection with the construction of dams and related irrigation schemes. This aspect can only be addressed by ensuring provision of safe water and sanitation to affected communities, buttressed by hygiene education of the public. Table 1 gives examples of communicable diseases associated with water.
Table 1: Examples of Communicable Diseases Associated with Water
| Category |
Description |
Examples |
| Water-Borne Disease |
These are diarrheal diseases transmitted through water and food that is contaminated by human, animal or chemical wastes (such as nitrates and pesticides).
They spread easily where proper sanitation facilities are lacking |
Cholera
Typhoid
Shigellosis
Polio
Infectious hepatitis |
Water-Related
Vector-Borne Diseases
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Transmitted by insects and other animals that breed and live in or near water
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Malaria
Yellow Fever
Filariasis
Riverblindness
Sleeping Sickness
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Water-Based Diseases
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Transmitted by organisms that spend part of their life cycle in water and another part as parasites of animals
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Guinea worm
Bilharzia
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Water-Scarce (or Water-Washed) Diseases
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Transmitted when too little water is available for washing hands and for personal hygiene. They thrive where fresh water is scarce and sanitation is poor.
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Trachoma
Leprosy
Tetanus
Diphtheria
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The general conclusion from the above is that adequate water and improved sanitation are essential for the control of certain communicable diseases, notably the water-born, water-based, and water-scarce diseases. On the other hand, engineering construction works associated with some of the anticipated actions under NEPAD could create conditions for increasing the incidence of certain communicable diseases that have far reaching social and economic consequences, notably the water-based and the water-related vector-born diseases. Hence, proper balance and attention need to be paid to water in the implementation of various aspects of the NEPAD program if the health objectives of NEPAD are to be realized.
Environmental Initiative
Africa’s environmental resources are considered to be among its most valuable assets. African forests alone are believed to contain 45 percent of all global biodiversity. Forest-related activities account for an estimated 10 percent of the GDP of 17 African nations. In counties like the Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Liberia, forest product are believed to account for over 10 percent of trade.
Due to considerations like these, the environmental initiative is of utmost importance in the NEPAD agenda. It has targeted the following eight sub-themes for priority intervention:
- Combating desertification
- Wetland conservation
- Invasive alien species
- Coastal management
- Global warming
- Cross-border conservation areas
- Environmental governance
- Financing
It is apparent that water resources and their management will be a critical element in these priority areas. This will include, but will not necessarily be limited to, making special allocation of water to meet environmental needs as well as using water resources management strategies that entail proper integration in the management of water, land, and forestry resources.
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