Water Crisis and its Consequences on the Environment: The case of Africa

Water Crisis and its Consequences on the Environment: The case of Africa

Water crisis is a situation where available water within a region is less than the region’s demand. Water is becoming scarce worldwide and all indicators tell that it will become even scarcer in the future. Decreasing availability, declining quality and growing demand for water are creating lots of challenges. The focus of this paper is on water scarcity and related problems and consequences on humans and the environment. While we understand that the problem that we will analyze in this paper can be found in many areas of the world in both developed and developing countries, we will focus on the case of developing countries, mainly Africa. Water scarcity challenges have many different types of problems and risks for both humans and the environment. The analysis in this paper is intended first, to examine why the water is becoming scarce especially in Africa; Second, to determine common problems and risks of water scarcity conditions on humans and environment; and third, it will also provide methods for handling these problems and identify ways to deal with it.

Water is already drying up in many places in the world. More than one-third of the world’s population, about 2.4 billion people, live in water-stressed countries, and by 2025 the number is expected to rise to two-thirds (Morrison 5). Declining water quality is a big problem around the world, particularly in developing countries where there are large increases in agricultural and industrial production, in addition to a lack of enough wastewater treatment.

To understand why the water crisis is an important issue in Africa, I note that there are 884 million people lacking access to safe water supplies; approximately one in eight people. There are many reasons why water is becoming scarce especially in Africa which include irregularity of the rainfalls and river falls. The irregularity of the rain fall in many parts of Africa resulting in a severe pressure on water supplies. The distribution is very unequal; the continent average is 14,870 cubic meters of water per inhabitant per year, but most of the regions in the continent apart from central Africa gets less than their average. North Africa is the driest among all regions in Africa which has less than 3% of the total rain falls. Water resources in both East and Southern Africa are less than half the African average, but central Africa, which has less land, receives 37% of the rainfall (Business Africa 1).

Climate change is also affecting water scarcity and supply. Much of the world’s poorest regions are expected to become largely drier because of climate change. A United Nations report reveals that current infrastructure does not have the capacity to fully capture the change in water situation and therefore will be inadequate to meet water demands in times of drought (United Nation Global Combat 2).

Another reason for water crisis in Africa is the population factors like population growth, age distribution, urbanization and migration. These processes affect water availability and quality through increased water demands and consumption and through pollution resulting from water use. Mismanagement of water resources and waste is also a major threat to the availability of water. In most African cities more than half the water supply is not counted for or wasted (Business Africa 2). Also in Africa in general, they exploit only a minor part of water resources compared with the rest of the world and has the lowest storage power of any region. Also, water availability and quality are put in danger by industrial pollution caused by ineffective land use and the use of fertilizers, pesticides and poor sanitation practices (Business Africa 2). Economic development also affects water availability. In many African countries with expanding urbanization, in the industrial and agricultural sectors, water quality is a major issue. Lack of water affects development through reducing food production, slowing down health and industrial development.

In many developing countries, waterways are used for drinking water and other needs like cooking etc. and it’s polluted very badly. The increasing water demand is the main reason why almost 900 million people in the world have a lack of safe drinking water and up to five million people die each year from illness related to water (Morrison 7). The freshwater situation in Africa specifically is not good. Of the 800 million who live in Africa, more than 300 million live with water scarcity problems ( Donkor 2).

Water scarcity has impacts on both humans and land habitability as well as on environment. In regard to water scarcity impact on humans we will first discuss the issues on health. Water-related diseases are among the most common causes of illness and death, affecting mainly the poor in developing countries. Water illnesses, including diarrhea, are caused by drinking polluted water, also diseases like malaria are passed on by the insects that grow in stagnant water. There are more than 1 million people that die each year from Malaria, out of which the majority are in Africa (UN World Water Development Report3 13). Also there are 3.575 million people dying each year from water-related disease and statistically every 20 seconds, a child dies from a water-related illness (Water Facts). In addition to that there are 43% of water-related deaths that are due to stomach problems, and 84% of water-related deaths are in children between the ages of 0 – 14 and 98% of water-related deaths occur in the developing world. There are 1.4 million children dying as a result of stomach illness each year and 90% of all deaths caused by diarrhea diseases are in children under 5 years of age, mostly in developing countries (Water Facts).

Another affect of water scarcity is on food production, economic development and poverty. The main source of the world’s food supply is agriculture, which includes crops, livestock, and forests, all of which depend on regular water flow. Also industry, which is important for economic growth, requires good resources of water. Another important effect of water scarcity on humans is on gender equity. Millions of women and children spend several hours day collecting water from far distances, and a lot of times it is polluted water. Collectively, Women also spend 200 million hours a day collecting water (Water Facts). Other impact that water scarcity has on humans are that it creates tensions among different users that lead to tribal problems between farmers and herders like in the case of Sudan, as well as tensions between countries.

Effects of water scarcity on environment include first, pollution, energy, climate change and then ecosystems. Reduced water quantity and quality both have serious negative impacts on ecosystems. Also water pollution has serious effects on ecosystems. A report by UN explains that “The environment has a natural absorptive, self-cleansing capacity. However, if this is exceeded, biodiversity is lost; livelihoods are affected, natural food sources, like fish, are damaged and high clean-up costs result” (UN World Water Development Report 13). Water scarcity also leads to droughts and desertification. Desertification, as defined in the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, is the “degradation of land in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas caused by climatic change and human activities” (United Nation Environment Programme 62). The region of the Sahara in Africa suffers from a very difficult shortage of freshwater in addition; water distribution is also unequal, with major regional, seasonal and annual differences. These differences lead towards generally dry conditions.

Another effect of water scarcity is on energy production. The generation of hydroelectricity depends on large quantities of water. Also water is used for processing and transporting all kinds of energy, like coal. Likewise, large quantities of water are needed for cooling energy plants. Energy production can also cause large water pollution.

How can we, individually improve the water crisis situation? Improving drinking water supply on one hand is important. Household acceptable water quality management programs like treatment and distribution of drinking water to reduce the problem of water diseases should be improved. Improvements in irrigation techniques like avoiding standing and slow running water, and educating farmers to the risk of disease will have a positive impact. On the other hand a need for demand management programs is also important. These programs should limit water usage, encourage saving, better management of distribution systems to deal with leakage and campaigns directed at conservation.

To improve the water crisis situation there is an urgent need for improving regional cooperation and political action in Africa to deal with the possibility of conflicts over water and to encourage cooperation among states that share water resources. Many think that huge investments are needed to deal with the water situation. The size of investment needed and the impact on consumers and the economy has to be addressed. The main thing is to meet the supply-demand balance and increase the investment in water infrastructure and wastewater treatment. It is also important to link industrial growth with environmental damage. There is a belief among environmentalists that businesses are destructive to the environment because what they look for is profit. In an article by Dimand Jared, he looks at this idea from a different viewpoint and cited the example of the Coca Cola Company which requires a reliable local supply of clean fresh water for their products. Since the water supply is scarce in many areas around the world and mainly reserved for human use like agriculture, and the little that remains is located in distant areas which is far for the company to access and manufacture. These factors force Coca Cola to be concerned with problems like water scarcity, energy, climate change and agriculture in addition to long-term goals like working on the conservation of the seven of world’s river basins along with other short-term plans like recycling plastic (Diamond 273). Therefore a proper link between industry and environment is required. Organization of water resources is important for water availability. This includes protecting the supply of water against overuse and pollution, as well as against erratic and unpredictable caused by global changes. An important point of improving the water situation is given in research by Malin Falkenmark concluded that “the link between land and water; and also between water and ecosystem will have to be properly linked into a land/water/ecosystem approach … An important link has to be made between environmental security, water security and food security” (Falkenmark 539). The issues of land, water, and ecosystem can not be taken separately and they have to be dealt with in a combined framework.

This paper focused on the water scarcity and its related risks and consequences on humans and the environment especially in Africa. The paper examined why water in Africa is becoming more scarce, which is a result of irregular rain fall, unequal distribution of water, demographic pressure, mismanagement, economic development, and climate change. The paper also stressed that decreasing availability, declining quality, and growing demand for water are creating lots of challenges for humans and nature. Without reliable water access, communities in Africa will find it difficult to maintain life, Moreover industrialization cannot be established, agricultural production and food supply are in danger, tensions between different users created, and health, energy production, and gender equity are all impacted by water scarcity. The paper also examined the implication of water scarcity on the environment, including water pollution and ecosystems, global warming, water shortage and droughts, desertification, etc. Different ways for dealing with water scarcity were identified. This include maintaining the balance between supply and demand of water, investing in the development of Africa’s potential water resources, organization of water resources, and improving ecosystem and regional cooperation.

Despite of the fact that water scarcity may not be a large issue to every country in the world today, in the countries that suffer from this problems of water issue must be addressed. If this left unchecked and not dealt with as soon as possible, I believe it will spread and become an issue for many other countries very soon, some which are already start feeling the effects. There are several actions that would be effective in preserving and conserving water and more solutions needed to cope with this crisis.

Work Cited

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Diamond, Jared. “Will Big Business Save the Earth”. Envision In Depth. Ed. Christine L.

Alfano, and Alyssa J. O’Brien. Boston: Pearson Education Inc, 2011.

Donkor, Stephen. Water in Africa: Management Options to Enhance Survival and

Growth. Addis Ababa: Economic Commission for Africa, 2006.

Falkenmark, Malin. “The Greatest Water Problem : The Inability to Link Environmental

Security, Water Security.” International Journal of Water Resources Development, 17. 4

(2011).

Morrison, Jason et al. Water Scarcity and Climate Change. Oakland: The Pacific Institute,

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United Nation Global Combat. Climate Change and the Global Water Crisis: What Businesse Need to Know and Do. New York: UN, 2009.

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