Water scarcity in Africa

Following my introduction, this second post will shed some light on the ways in which Africa suffers from water insecurity. After reading an article on the provision of safe water by Golooba-Mutebi, I will tap into the case study of Uganda to highlight some difficulties on water extraction and further the difficulties of resolving rural provision (Golooba-Mutebi, 2012). The inaccessibility of water in rural Africa accentuates the gender discrepancy and is only becoming more threatening with climate change. It is important to be aware of why water in Africa is termed as water scarce to allow for future projects to adapt in the changing climatic landscape, and to find suitable ways to provide safe water to rural and urban communities. Furthermore, the difficulty of water extraction in Africa leads to women and young children, the primary water collectors, having to travel long distances to find a source of safe water which results in a high expenditure of energy and time (Carter et al, 1999). Within the next few weeks I will explore in more detail the threat that water scarcity places on gender equality, but this post will home in on some of the key causes of water scarcity within east and southern Africa, such as Uganda.

Before delving into the physical setting which leads to the restriction on water availability, it is important to consider the validity of the term ‘water scarcity’. Whilst many African countries, such as Kenya and Rwanda, are deemed as facing water scarcity which is defined as countries receiving <500m³/year, the definition has been the subject of many a debate. The majority of water stress assessments are based on this Water Stress Index due to the ease and simplicity of the calculation, yet it can misrepresent the water situation in many countries. This simplicity fails to account for variations in annual river runoff and fails to account for other stores of water including groundwater, lakes and reservoirs (Damkjaer and Taylor, 2017). It is crucial that these other stores are considered when measuring water availability due to their significant contribution to freshwater provision, such as groundwater which accounts for 40% of the water used for irrigation globally (Taylor, 2009). Despite the concern around which type of metric or measurement to use for water scarcity, it is evident that Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, suffers from water inaccessibility.

A young woman collecting water from the broken well in Abia village, Uganda. Source

I am now going to highlight some of the main causes of water unavailability in Africa in order to contextualise the heightening of gender issues surrounding the provision of this necessity. There is high rainfall variability within the continent with dependence on the movement of the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Naturally, this contributes to river discharge and hence can lead to extreme variability in flow in southern Africa which has the highest coefficients of variation (McMahon et al, 2007). With heightened variability comes heightened insecurity surrounding the provision of freshwater from rivers and streams. Furthermore, the rising desertification in sub-Saharan Africa due to changing climatic activity is causing drought and hence famine due to the high dependency on agriculture for survival. In Uganda particularly, there is severe soil degradation due to deforestation where annually there has been a decline in forest extent by 1.95% (Banadda, 2010). Deforestation leads to droughts and flash flooding. This exacerbates the insecurity of a reliable water supply which women depend on for water collection. In addition, it is not just the hydrological water supply that is the issue. Whilst precipitation in Africa is variable, scientists have contested that there is a substantial groundwater reservoir below the surface which equates to '100 times the amount found on the surface' (BBC News). Groundwater has been considered as the solution to the freshwater supply inadequacy in Africa. However, the difficulty lies within the high dependence on this supply of safe drinking water and the over extraction. For example, in Uganda, 90% of the rural population is dependent on the crystalline aquifer groundwater supplies which is collected to through the installation of 900 shallow wells and 1200 deeper bore holes on an annual basis (UNESCO). Over extraction can result in the lowering of the water table which forces collectors to travel to other sources which can be further away.

New quantitative groundwater map of Africa. Source 

Even when there is the ability to collect water through groundwater reserves, it is not necessarily 'safe' water. The water that is available is often contaminated with faecal produce and pollution that can occur further upstream from the point of collection (Banadda, 2010). Some of this pollution comes from the high intensity of industrial activity, such as from the heavy metals industry in Uganda (Walakira and Okot-Okumu, 2011). In effect, this has led to 51% of Ugandans living without access to safe water which leads to malnutrition and sanitation deprivation, particularly for women who are at greater risk from a lack of sanitation during child birth (Water.org). One of the main factors that affects whether people in east Africa have access to clean water is whether they are supplied by a reliable piped system or not, and naturally there is a higher percentage of the population who have this in urban areas as opposed to rural ones (Thompson et al, 2000). However, the failure of the piped water system in the last thirty years due to poor management and maintenance has led to the narrowing of the consumption gap from a ratio of 8:1, in terms of consumption when a household has access to piped water compared to a household which does not, to only 2.6:1 (Thompson et al, 2000). This is another reason that women are subjected to spending hours travelling to springs, wells and other water sources as it is not possible for them to receive water directly to the household. Next, I am going to explore in detail why this water unavailability and inaccessibility, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, is widening the gender equality gap.