Scottie Bolin
Water Scarcity in Sub-Saharan Africa
It is no secret that there is a serious lack of drinkable water, and water in general in Sub-Saharan Africa. This has been an ongoing issue that has been persistent, especially in recent years. This paper looks at the underlying causes for such a large issue as this one. There are multiple reasons why water is scarce in Sub-Saharan Africa, but the principle causes can be traced back to two issues, physical scarcity due to the lack of water in the area, as well as economic hardship within the area that makes buying water and traveling for water too time consuming and expensive. The issue of physical scarcity of water has a multitude of sub causes that all add onto the issue of a severe lack of water throughout the massive region of southern Africa. These factors that contribute to a physical scarcity of water include Climate change and the decreasing amount of natural water in Sub -Saharan Africa. Physical scarcity is a serious issue because changing the climate is not an easy fix. Economic difficulties in the area such as the massive amount of low income families throughout the region add onto the daily struggle for water. Without a steady income, families cannot afford to buy the scarce amount of water that is available. These two issues of physical scarcity as well as economic strife in certain areas throughout the vast region of Sub-Saharan Africa lead to the widespread scarcity of water that is seen today.
Water Scarcity as a result from climate change is not an isolated issue. In fact it is estimated that the impact from climate change is global. Simon N. Gosling from the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham did an extensive study modeling the effect of climate change on over a thousand different watersheds across the globe and the impact of these models of climate change on the availability of water to the people living within those regions. According to Gosling, somewhere between one and two billion people around the world living within watersheds are experiencing water scarcity. He also estimates that by 2050 less than three billion additional people will be experiencing the same.(Gosling) These numbers seem drastic, yet realistic when you look at how the climate, specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa, has affected it’s residents. A document put together by the Africa Partnership Forum had this to say, “According to recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), more intense and longer droughts have been observed over wider areas since the 1970s, particularly in the tropics and subtropics.” In addition to the intensity of these droughts, this document also mentions the increasing global temperature as a result of climate change. The Africa Partnership Forum also said that eleven out of twelve years between the years of 1995 and 2006 ranked as the warmest years in terms of global surface temperature since 1850.(APF) This increased frequency of warm years show that this is obviously an upward sloping trend that needs to be stopped.
The economic status of the population in the affected areas of water scarcity is a huge factor that plays a major role in the amount of water available to those areas. Most areas in Sub-Saharan Africa rely mainly on rain water to necessitate their water needs. Due to the widespread poverty, this region of Africa is struggling to collect enough water due to the lack of infrastructure that would provide enough water through the collection of dams and roof run-offs. Unlike climate change, these issues could easily be addressed. In addition to collecting rainfall, people in rural communities have to travel miles to collect water from ponds, lakes, or wells. This water is often extremely unsanitary and carry diseases that get passed on to whomever drinks it. In addition to the health risks that put poor families at a further disadvantage, the time it takes for these people to travel to collect this water is a massive burden when they could be spending that time working or benefiting their families in other ways. People are too busy trying to survive instead of making any kind of economic progress. “Economic water scarcity exists when a population does not have the necessary monetary means to utilize an adequate source of water.” (The Water Project) The fact is that there is enough water to go around, but the distribution of resources is so inefficient and unequal due to many reasons including, “political and ethnic conflict.”(The Water Project) According to an article by Dominic Kniveton from the University of Sussex for the Journal of Peace Research, there seems to be a clear link between climate variability measured through rainfall and an increase in violent activity in specific areas of eastern Africa. The article concludes that during times of extreme drought, there is a dramatic spike in the amount of violent acts committed, which inevitably leads to further economic struggle and a complete lack of water security.(Kniveton)
The two major reasons why the majority of people struggle to find clean water in Sub-Saharan Africa is physical scarcity and economic poverty. Climate of the region does not allow for excess amounts of rainfall, leaving the people of this region to go without water when it is not the rainy season. The process of climate change over recent years due to the overconsumption of natural resources, fossil fuels, and releasing toxic gases into the air has sped up and increased issues regarding climate and weather in Sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change plays such a large factor in the lack of clean drinkable water. With climate change comes temperature increases and decreases in amount of rainfall. Temperature and rainfall are two of the most important issues discussed when it comes to physical scarcity of water. Economic issues in the region also tack onto the hardship of survival throughout sub-saharan Africa. As mentioned before, when a family struggles to find food for themselves, having to think about where their water is coming from is the last thing they need. Finding water for many of these families means time and money. It takes time for these families to get water in that many people are having to travel miles in order to get to the nearest source of clean water such as a lake, pond, or reservoir. It take money for these families to be able to set up necessary parameters in order to collect what natural rainfall there is. In my opinion this issue of economic poverty and not being able to set up rainfall collection units or roof drainage runoff systems is the easiest thing that can be fixed that will potentially take some of the pressure off of certain poor families in Sub-Saharan Africa and may allow them more time and money to focus on other aspects of their lives.
Work Cited
A global assessment of the impact of climate change on water scarcity
Climatic Change, 2013, Page 1
Simon N. Gosling, Nigel W. Arnell
Africa Partnership Forum. “Climate Change and Africa.” Africa Partnership Forum (2007): n. pag. Web. <http://www.africapartnershipforum.org//meetingdocuments/38897900.pdf>.
The Water Project. “Water Scarcity.” The Water Project. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://thewaterproject.org/water_scarcity_2.asp#econ>.
Kniveton, Dominic. “Come Rain or Shine an Analysis of Conflict and Climate Variability in East Africa.” Journal of Peace Research (2012): n. pag. Print.
Burke, Kelsey, “The Viability of Water Privatization in Sub-Saharan Africa” (2013). Economics Honors Papers. Paper 13.
http://digitalcommons.conncoll.edu/econhp/13
This honors article was written by Kelsey Burke of Connecticut College. This article seems to be credible given it is a scholarly article found at an academic source. This article goes over part of the issues in sub saharan Africa in regards to water and water privatization as a means to expand the availability of water in Africa. Burke goes on to talk about how it may be most beneficial to focus on water privatization in urban areas due to the difficulty of making water available in rural areas. This article will be very useful for the project for identifying certain issues with water scarcity in Sub-Saharan Africa, specifically the economic side of water privatization.
Ashton, Peter. “Water and Security in Sub-Saharan Africa: Emerging Concepts and Their Implications for Effective Water Resource Management in the Southern African Region.” (n.d.): n. pag. Web. <http://download.springer.com/static/pdf/225/chp%253A10.1007%252F978-3-540-68488-6_50.pdf?auth66=1384021179_ca1e3a6d50ffc0d1d7d1957bc533a34e&ext=.pdf>.
This extensive scholarly article was written by Peter Ashton, and covers a large array of topics including security of water as well as how countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are interacting in regards to the trade of water. This pdf also talks about where geographically water scarcity is prevalent. In addition to this, the article also mentions a few different options and strategies being implemented as a way of combating the problem of water scarcity. This article will prove very useful in the making of this project.
Pickering, Amy. “Freshwater Availability and Water Fetching Distance Affect Child Health in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Environmental Science & Technology (2012): n. pag. Web. <http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es203177v>.
This scholarly article written by Amy Pickering from the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Stanford covers issues of water scarcity such as effect of health. Amy Pickering talks about the time and energy used to travel long distances for fresh drinking water and the impact this has on the health and daily lives regarding time consumption. This article seems to be useful when discussing some of the issues involved socially in sub-saharan Africa, as well as in respect to health issues.
Water Scarcity in Sub-Saharan Africa 