<figure>
 <img decoding="async" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/308779/original/file-20200107-123377-2bsrfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&#038;q=45&#038;auto=format&#038;w=754&#038;fit=clip" />
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 High resolution satellite image of the Nile River’s delta.
 Shutterstock/TommoT
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ethan-d-coffel-389546">Ethan D. Coffel</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/dartmouth-college-1720">Dartmouth College</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/justin-s-mankin-930128">Justin S. Mankin</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/dartmouth-college-1720">Dartmouth College</a>

The Nile – the world’s longest river – runs through <a href="https://ascelibrary.org/doi/pdf/10.1061/9780784481394.026">11 countries</a> in Africa and <a href="https://www.internationalrivers.org/campaigns/nile-basin">has a basin</a> that covers about 3 million sq kms, nearly 10% of the continent’s landmass. About <a href="http://atlas.nilebasin.org/treatise/estimated-and-projected-total-population-in-nile-basin-countries/">250 million people</a> are reliant on the Nile’s waters in Ethiopia, Uganda, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt. 

Nearly all of the rainfall that feeds the Nile’s two major tributaries – the Blue and White Nile – falls in the upper Nile basin, found in South Sudan, western Ethiopia and Uganda. The lower Nile basin receives very little rainfall and the countries there – Sudan and Egypt – depend heavily on the Nile for water. 

Climate projections suggest that, by the end of the century, the amount of rain in the Upper Nile basin could increase <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2019EF001247">by up to 20%</a>. But our <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2019EF001247">new paper</a> shows that, despite more rainfall, devastating hot and dry spells are projected to become more frequent in the Upper Nile basin. 

These conditions will occur simultaneously with the region’s rapid population growth, <a href="http://atlas.nilebasin.org/treatise/estimated-and-projected-total-population-in-nile-basin-countries/">anticipated</a> to double by the middle of this century. This will increase water stress in the region, irrespective of the modest rainfall increases.

At present, around 10% of the basin’s population faces chronic <a href="https://www.un.org/waterforlifedecade/scarcity.shtml">water scarcity</a> due to the region’s seasonal aridity and the highly unequal distribution of water resources. By 2040, according to our research – in a year with average temperatures and rain – the number of people facing water scarcity could reach 35%. That’s more than 80 million people without enough water to function in their daily lives.

Hot and dry conditions will make this worse. These conditions will kill crops, reduce hydropower, diminish the water available for people and industry and heighten tensions over the distribution of regional water resources. By 2040, a hot and dry year could push over 45% of the people in the Nile Basin – nearly 110 million people – into water scarcity. 

Even without these developments, population growth would drive water scarcity in the Upper Nile. But larger deficits in the amount of water flowing into streams and rivers during future hot and dry years will amplify this effect. This will leave an additional 5% to 15% of the future population in the Upper Nile basin facing water scarcity in hot and dry years.

These climate and population changes will project onto an already complex and tense socioeconomic and political landscape. 

The Nile’s 11 riparian states vie with one another for the river’s water. The downstream states of Egypt and Sudan try to assert control over the Nile flow, while upstream states try to find ways to secure water for their well-being. Coupled with the region’s strong dependence on subsistence agriculture and political instability, the region is at risk of severe food and water shortages. 

<h2>More hot and dry years</h2>

For our research, we wanted to understand how much more frequent hot and dry years could become, despite the slight increase in overall rainfall.

To do this we assessed historical climate trends in the Upper Nile Basin using eight observational data sets. These recorded rainfall and temperature in the Upper Nile basin between 1961 and 2005. We also used climate models to estimate how temperature and precipitation will change over the remaining century.

Our findings show that hot and dry years have become more common over the past four decades in the Upper Nile basin and that this trend is likely to continue. These hot and dry conditions will be similar to those that have resulted in crop failures, food shortages and humanitarian crises in the region over the past decades. 

By the late 21st century, the frequency of these hot and dry years may rise between a factor of 1.5 and 3. In the past, hot and dry years occurred about once every 20 years; but this increase in frequency means that in the future a hot and dry year could occur once every six to 10 years, making them a common experience for people in the region. 

In addition to becoming more frequent, they will also become more severe. Temperatures during heat waves in the region could rise between 2°C and 6°C, putting far more stress on people, animals and crops than occurs today.

We estimated the number of people facing water scarcity by comparing the total runoff – the amount of water flowing into streams and rivers – which is available for human consumption with the amount of water every person needs to meet their basic needs. When we make this comparison, we find that despite the small projected increase in rainfall, as the population rises and hot and dry years become more frequent, the total water supply will be far less than needed to meet the region’s needs.

<h2>Causes</h2>

What’s causing all this?

Like the rest of the world, the <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1860/A%20Climate%20Trend%20Analysis%20of%20Ethiopia.pdf">Nile Basin region has been warming</a> due to rising global greenhouse gas concentrations. Because rainfall is projected to slightly increase in the region, the frequency of dry years won’t change significantly. However, the rise in temperature means that when dry years happen, they will be hot. 

Compounding this drying is a projected increase in the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3273">year-to-year variations</a> in rainfall, which may be due to projected intensification of El Niño and La Niña cycles. This creates a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0140-y">precipitation “whiplash”</a> in the region, where severe <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/islamic-relief-responds-flash-floods-devastate-white-nile-sudan">wet</a> and <a href="https://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci.net/18/1239/2014/">dry</a> years occur in quick succession. 

<h2>What can be done</h2>

One critical priority is to ensure that food and water are more equally available to all. Despite there being enough food and water on average, many people <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/09.30.19_-_USAID-DCHA_Ethiopia_Complex_Emergency_Fact_Sheet_3.pdf">cannot afford or access it</a>. This will get worse.

A critical first step is for basin states to create an equitable water allocation scheme among them that not only addresses “historical rights” – such as Egypt’s long-held claims to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03932729.2017.1333272">two-thirds of Nile flow</a> – but also to the needs of upstream countries like South Sudan and Ethiopia, which require water to build their economies. 

Cooperative water-sharing institutions within the basin could help avert contentious situations. For instance, Ethiopia is currently constructing the <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ethiopia-dam-factbox/factbox-key-facts-about-ethiopias-giant-nile-dam-idUSKBN1XG21L">Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam</a> on the Blue Nile River. Without strong regional institutions to provide political and legal assurances of fair Nile water use, the dam’s construction is provoking worries in Egypt, as it would likely reduce irrigation water availability for the country’s agriculture.

Water may be often pointed to as a source of conflict, but as with the case of <a href="http://www.columbia.edu/%7Etmd2118/situstudio/why_cooperation.pdf">Israel and Jordan</a>, it can also be a means to cooperation, getting nations to the negotiating table. In a future world with more people and less water, countries in the Nile Basin will need to work together to ensure the best use of the region’s resources to catch and store rainfall in the wet, flood risk years, and equally distribute that water in dry years. 

If the region’s governments fail to work together to prepare, the consequences for their people could be catastrophic.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129360/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ethan-d-coffel-389546">Ethan D. Coffel</a>, Neukom Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/dartmouth-college-1720">Dartmouth College</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/justin-s-mankin-930128">Justin S. Mankin</a>, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/dartmouth-college-1720">Dartmouth College</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-the-future-there-will-be-more-rain-but-less-water-in-the-nile-basin-129360">original article</a>.

Nile_River_Shutterstock_TommoT

In the future there will be more rain but less water in the Nile Basin, what can be done?

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According to data, achieving universal access to water and sanitation for all by 2030, there needs to be increased investment in management of freshwater ecosystems and sanitation facilities on a local level in several developing countries within Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Henning Sandager, Area Managing Director at GRUNDFOS Sub-Saharan Africa joins CNBC Africa for more.

GRUNDFOS MD Sandager on how to solve water crisis in Africa

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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed are set to meet in Russia to discuss a dispute over a hydropower dam that Ethiopia is building on the River Nile, which has caused a long-running diplomatic standoff. Ethiopia aims to provide electricity to homes of its 105 million citizens and Egypt wants a steady supply of water for its 98 million citizens. Global Chairman at Fairfax Africa Fund (US), Zemedeneh Negatu joins CNBC Africa for more.

Egypt, Ethiopia to hold talks over Nile dam hydropower dispute

By Lincoln
Wilcox and Efosa Ojomo



The United
Nations defines access to safe drinking water as a basic human right, but
according to their newest report, three out of ten—or 2.1 billion people—still
lack access to it. Water may be life, but unfortunately it’s not free.&nbsp;



Governments
and development organizations have spent billions of dollars over the past
several decades in an attempt to address this inequity in low- and
middle-income countries, but the unfortunate reality is that many of these
efforts have fallen flat. The United States, for example, has spent more than <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/katineblog/2009/mar/26/water-projects-wasted-money">$360
million</a> on rural water supply schemes in Africa and other regions that have
broken down and no longer work. When outside actors provide communities with
resources like wells and water treatment infrastructure, too often no
sustainable mechanism exists to maintain them. And even if they don’t break
down, donated solutions are inherently unscalable.&nbsp;



So how do
you create a solution that sticks? In our research, we&#8217;ve found that it starts
with innovators and entrepreneurs who create robust markets that serve people
who are currently unable to access water. These new markets provide the
necessary resources to make safe water not only affordable and accessible, but
also financially sustainable since they generate revenue that can then be used
to maintain and grow the market. Consider how these two organizations, each
with different business models, have created viable, lasting solutions that
address the access to water challenge in the regions where they operate.



Drinkwell:
Developing technology for safe water



In the
densely populated nation of Bangladesh, the country’s clean water <a href="https://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/78%289%291093.pdf">crisis</a> reached
an all-time high when it was discovered that arsenic had contaminated the
nation’s groundwater. It was this crisis that inspired Minhaj Chowdhury to form
<a href="http://drinkwellsystems.com/">Drinkwell</a>, a social enterprise that
sells low-cost, high-efficiency water filtration systems to local entrepreneurs
who build a business around providing safe water.



Empowering
entrepreneurs who can leverage their social capital to reach customers is a key
component of the company’s model, which Chowdhury credits with its
sustainability. But the company also ensures the long-term viability of its
“Water ATMs” by providing entrepreneurs with maintenance support and financial
management assistance.&nbsp;



Drinkwell
started selling its solution in 2013, but unlike to thousands of donated wells
that have provided water for limited periods before breaking down, the
organization’s financially sustainable model shows no signs of decay. To date,
more than 200,000 people now load “water credits” onto their DrinkWell cards
and use them at designated DrinkWell sites in India, Bangladesh, Laos, and
Cambodia, and the organization aims to expand its network to serve more than
5,000 communities in the next year. Drinkwell’s success offers a blueprint for
closing the gap on access to clean, affordable water.&nbsp;



Manila
Water: A public-private partnership that works



25 years
ago, as many as ten million people in the Philippines didn’t have access to
safe water. In the eastern region of Manila, the capital city, barely a quarter
of people had access to potable water. The situation got so bad that the
government was compelled to enact a National Water Crisis Act, which paved the
way for innovators to work with the government to solve this problem. This gave
birth to <a href="https://www.manilawater.com/corporate/about-us/our-story">Manila
Water</a>, a public-private partnership between the government and the
Philippines&#8217; oldest conglomerate, Ayala Corporation.&nbsp;



As a
private company, Manila Water had a strong incentive to distribute water to as
many customers as possible. To do this, its executives invested in new systems
for production, treatment, and distribution of water; trained an entirely new
workforce; and reshuffled the existing organization structure to focus on
increasing access. At the same time, the government retained its ability to
regulate the industry to best serve the people of Manila. This hybrid
public-private relationship between Ayala and the government has paid off
immensely as more than 99% of people in the region now have access to
affordable, clean water. In addition, Ayala is exporting its expertise to
neighboring countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia.
Sometimes the government has the will, but the private sector might just have
the way.



In a world
where water, the most basic resource we need to survive, is still out of reach
for more than two billion people, a fundamental rethinking of how we address
the challenge of providing this critical resource is necessary. No one
organization can solve the global water challenge, but organizations like
Drinkwell and Manila Water have shown a way to develop innovative
models—through leveraging entrepreneurship, new technologies, and government
partnerships —to tackle this seemingly intractable issue. And unlike more
conventional answers to the problem, these solutions are fundamentally
sustainable and scalable. That’s why they remain our best hope for making water
accessible to all.



Lincoln
Wilcox is a
research associate on the global prosperity team at the Clayton Christensen
Institute.



Efosa Ojomo is a senior research fellow at the
Clayton Christensen Institute where he leads its Global Prosperity research.

Op-Ed: The best hope for solving the global water crisis

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The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) was touted as project that would transform South Africa, a country thirsty for water. It hasn&#8217;t panned out to be all it was promised to be with delays and allegations of maladministration. Now in an attempt to get the project back on track three municipalities in the Free State will be facing very low water supply as it will be shut down for two months for inspection and maintenance. To discuss what this will mean for a thirsty nation, Spokesperson from the National Department of Water and Sanitation, Sputnik Ratau joins CNBC Africa for more.

Free State to face low water supply following LHWP shut down

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/meron-teferi-taye-804226">Meron Teferi Taye</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/addis-ababa-university-2161">Addis Ababa University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ellen-dyer-804257">Ellen Dyer</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-oxford-1260">University of Oxford</a>

In July Ethiopians <a href="http://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/ethiopia-plants-over-350-million-trees-day-setting-new-world-record">planted</a> 350 million trees in a single day. This was part of the country’s national <a href="https://pmo.gov.et/greenlegacy/">green legacy initiative</a> to counter environmental degradation and climate change. The initiative ultimately aims to grow 4 billion trees across the country.

Ethiopia has long struggled with land degradation problems in part caused by <a href="https://www.thegef.org/topics/land-degradation">unsustainable agricultural practices</a> – like <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-19168-3_14">vegetation clearance and overgrazing</a>, among others. These pressures are increasing as the population grows.

Where water becomes scarcer due to climate change, <a href="https://www.longdom.org/open-access/climate-change-and-its-impact-on-land-degradation-imperative-need-to-focus-2332-2594.1000108.pdf">land degradation could worsen</a>. But what does the science tell us about the effects of climate change on water resources, and so on people and the economy, in Ethiopia?

Since 2015, the <a href="https://reachwater.org.uk/">REACH programme</a> – a global research programme to improve water security for the poor and in which we are involved – has attempted to answer this question. We focused on Ethiopia’s Awash River basin, one of the country’s most economically and socially important basins.

The basin represents about <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265483628_The_Water_of_the_Awash_River_Basin_a_Future_Challenge_to_Ethiopia">10% of the country’s land area</a>, and 17% of its total population. It is home to the capital city, Addis Ababa, and also plays a critical role for Ethiopia’s economy.

In Ethiopia, most studies on the effects of climate change on water resources focus on the Nile basin. Future projections also often lack consistency because of the differences in the models that are used. <a href="https://reachwater.org.uk/resource/climate-change-impact-on-water-resources-in-the-awash-basin-ethiopia/">Our research</a> aimed to develop better estimates of the effects of climate change on water availability in the Awash basin. We did this by using climate models that best represented the region’s characteristics. 

We found that, in the future, the basin will be hotter, drier and more water stressed. This could have severe consequences on human and economic development, highlighting the need for climate resilient policies to minimise impacts.

<h2>Water is crucial for people and the economy</h2>

In Ethiopia, rainfall and water availability are highly variable. The lack of water often impacts communities, industry and agriculture. Almost all food crops, and most industrial crops in Ethiopia, are <a href="http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries_regions/eth/ETH-CP_eng.pdf">produced by rain-fed agriculture</a>. Industrial crops alone contribute to <a href="https://www.undp.org/content/dam/ethiopia/docs/UNDP%20Ethiopia%20Fact%20Sheet%20-%20Agriculture%20Growth%20and%20Transformation%20-%20August%202014.pdf">85% of export earnings</a>.

In addition water is vital to electricity generation. Hydropower accounts for about <a href="https://www.hydropower.org/country-profiles/ethiopia">90% of Ethiopia’s electricity</a>. 

This high reliance on water means that Ethiopia is very vulnerable to water-related climate shocks – like water scarcity, drought and floods. <a href="https://reachwater.org.uk/resource/water-resources-extreme-events-awash-basin-economic-effects-policy-implications/">A modest 5% decrease in rainfall</a> could cause a 10% decrease in agricultural productivity and reduce the GDP derived from the basin by 5%.

The basin is already vulnerable. It often experiences floods and droughts. Besides, access to water is very geographically uneven, with rainfall and surface water being scarce downstream and relatively abundant in the highlands. To what extent would adding climate change to the mix worsen the situation?

<h2>Hotter and drier future</h2>

Using models that best characterise the basin, we projected future changes in temperature and precipitation. We then compared those to the historical average. Our climate projections suggest water stress will generally intensify in the future – although there are some spatial differences. Water availability will continue to decrease progressively until at least the end of the century.

These findings are particularly critical for the key irrigation period of April to June. During these months we find decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature will lead to lower water availability. 

These months are the peak irrigation period for both small-scale farmers and large-scale irrigators. Additionally, water allocation between hydropower and irrigators could be a source of conflict in the face of decreased water availability.

Finally, this will make water access more challenging for human needs such as drinking, sanitation and hygiene. This will be particularly true for poor and vulnerable communities, and those downstream.

<figure>
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 </figure>

<h2>Climate resilient policies</h2>

Developing climate resilient policies for allocating water, and planning for a reduced water availability, is ever more pressing. But incorporating climate information within management decisions is a complex task. This requires access to scientific information and a good understanding of the current and future hydroclimatic situation.

To support better water management and allocation policies, our research points to the need to:

<ul>
<li>Improve the accessibility of climate information and develop the capacity of staff in government and related institutions to be able to understand and use it for water management; </li>
<li>Sustainably develop additional water sources, such as groundwater, which could act as a buffer and supplement surface water supply;</li>
<li>Consider the needs of the poorest in the basin who are the most vulnerable to climate change.</li>
</ul>

Of course, decisions about how much water to allocate and to whom in a drier future will be politically challenging. They require effective management strategies, political will and investments and better stakeholder dialogue forums. Scientists will also need to work more closely with policy makers.

Ethiopia’s green legacy is a promising contribution towards tackling global climate change: trees can play an important role in removing atmospheric carbon dioxide. But can trees contribute to local climate adaptation and mitigate land degradation? 

This is a complex question and our view is that, for a country that will likely be hotter, drier, and more water stressed, climate resilient policies need to be grounded in robust science.

Alice Chautard, REACH Communications and Knowledge Exchange Manager, University of Oxford, contributed to the writing of this article.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121844/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/meron-teferi-taye-804226">Meron Teferi Taye</a>, Country Programme Manager, REACH: Improving Water Security for the Poor, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/addis-ababa-university-2161">Addis Ababa University</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ellen-dyer-804257">Ellen Dyer</a>, Postdoctoral researcher in African Climate Science, School of Geography and the Environment, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-oxford-1260">University of Oxford</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ethiopias-future-is-tied-to-water-a-vital-yet-threatened-resource-in-a-changing-climate-121844">original article</a>.

This East African country’s future is tied to water – a vital yet threatened resource in a changing climate

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/emad-hasan-773516">Emad Hasan</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/binghamton-university-state-university-of-new-york-2252">Binghamton University, State University of New York</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/aondover-tarhule-773518">Aondover Tarhule</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/binghamton-university-state-university-of-new-york-2252">Binghamton University, State University of New York</a>

Today, more than 700 million people around the world <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/drinking-water">drink water from unsafe or untreated sources</a>, such as wells, springs and surface water. 

About half of these people live in sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, in more than 30 African countries, fewer than 20% of the people <a href="https://thewaterproject.org/water-scarcity">have access to safe drinking water</a>. 

<a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/03/climate-change-water-en.pdf">Climate change is likely to worsen the situation</a> by making water less available in some locations and by changing the amounts and timing when water is available. 

Determining whether a region has sufficient water to satisfy the needs of people who live there is a complicated and imperfect process. Our research team has developed a new approach <a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11080904">to measure water scarcity</a> by using satellites hundreds of miles in space. 

<h2>How to measure water scarcity</h2>

To estimate water scarcity, hydrologists, the people who study the science of water, build what they call a <a href="https://naturalsciences.ch/topics/water/water_balance">“water budget.”</a> 

They estimate all of the water entering the country – from rivers, rainfall, groundwater and man-made sources – and then subtract all of the water exiting the country. This produces an estimate of the available water in the country or region. 

By dividing the available water by the population in the region, hydrologists can tell whether there is sufficient water to meet people’s needs. 

Generally, in the U.S., <a href="https://water.usgs.gov/edu/qa-home-percapita.html">the average person uses between 300 and 400 liters of water per day</a> for basic needs – like drinking, sanitation, bathing and food preparation. 

Globally, a country is said to experience a serious water scarcity problem if it has <a href="http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/maps/TRWR.Cap_eng.pdf">less than 500,000 liters of water</a> per person per year, to meet both their daily needs and agricultural needs.

This water budget process works if accurate data are available for each source of water. However, in many developing regions, such as Africa, the data required to calculate water budgets are not available. 

Yet Africa critically needs accurate information on its water scarcity status. As the second most populated continent, Africa is projected to have <a href="https://www.prb.org/2013-world-population-data-sheet/">a population of 2.4 billion by 2050</a>, approximately double the current estimated population. Such rapid population growth will exert considerable stress on the continent’s available water resources, worsening the already acute water scarcity situation. 

So, assessing the potentially available water resources is essential for the future.

<h2>Look to the skies</h2>

<a href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11080904">Our study</a> takes a new approach to assessing water scarcity. 

We used data from two satellite systems. The first is called the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, operated since 1997 by the U.S. and Japan. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission uses several instruments – including a precipitation radar, microwave imager, visible and infrared scanner – to estimate rainfall. Getting the rainfall estimate right is critical, because this is the most important source of water for human use. 

The second type of satellite data is from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, a joint mission between the U.S. and Germany. First launched in 2002, the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment is a twin satellite mission that uses the changes in the Earth’s gravitational fields to infer changes in the global water resources, from the Earth’s surface to the deepest groundwater aquifers. 

We combined data from these two satellite systems to calculate the monthly potential available water from all sources of water for each country in Africa from 2002 to 2016. By dividing this value by the population in each country, we obtained a new measurement of available water storage per capita. 

Because the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellite data also estimates water in deep groundwater aquifers, which may not be accessible due to technical or economic limitations, we refer to this new estimate as potential available water storage.

<figure class="align-center zoomable">
 <a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283755/original/file-20190711-173347-18a9z4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img decoding="async" alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283755/original/file-20190711-173347-18a9z4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283755/original/file-20190711-173347-18a9z4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=241&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283755/original/file-20190711-173347-18a9z4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=241&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283755/original/file-20190711-173347-18a9z4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=241&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283755/original/file-20190711-173347-18a9z4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=303&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283755/original/file-20190711-173347-18a9z4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=303&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/283755/original/file-20190711-173347-18a9z4h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=303&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
 <figcaption>
 Potentially available water per capita, for present-day (A) and future estimates for the year 2025 (B) and 2050 (C).
 <a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11080904">Remote Sensing (2019)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a>
 </figcaption>
 </figure>

<h2>Measuring water, faster</h2>

We compared our results with the data currently used by the <a href="http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/data/query/index.html?lang=en">United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization</a>. Their method relies on conventional water budget accounting to estimate the total renewable water resources in a country. It then classifies each country into one of four categories: water-sufficient, vulnerable, water-stressed or water-scarce. 

Of the 48 African countries studied, our method classified 26 in the same category as the U.N.‘s method; 12 were classified as having more water than indicated and 10 as less. 

These differences are not surprising. Our estimate includes also water in aquifers deep underground that the U.N.’s method does not account for. Their method likely underestimates the total available water for countries that have substantial groundwater reserves. 

On the other hand, the accuracy of our method can be affected by the size of a country. Countries smaller than the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment footprint – the approximately 200,000 square kilometer blocks that the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment estimates can be made with confidence – are much more likely to be in error.

By 2050, assuming no change in available water resources, we project that 19 countries in Africa will face water scarcity and another nine countries will be water-stressed. However, if climate change were to cause Africa’s water resources to decrease by 10%, which is <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/02/WGIIAR5-Chap22_FINAL.pdf">within the range of several climate projections for some African countries</a>, then approximately 85% of Africa’s population will experience a dangerous water scarcity situation. 

In general, we think that our method has several advantages over existing methods. It circumvents many of the limitations related to data unavailability and reliability in Africa. The data are more temporally and spatially continuous, as well as easier for researchers to access. As a result, estimates of water scarcity can be carried out much more rapidly for the entire continent. 

Satellites will gather new data in the coming years. We plan to take advantage of such data improvements as they become available to refine our method in terms of accuracy and water scarcity assessment at the sub-country level, not only in Africa but globally. 

[ Deep knowledge, daily. <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&amp;utm_medium=inline-link&amp;utm_campaign=newsletter-text&amp;utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120055/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important" />

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/emad-hasan-773516">Emad Hasan</a>, Postdoctoral Researcher in Geography, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/binghamton-university-state-university-of-new-york-2252">Binghamton University, State University of New York</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/aondover-tarhule-773518">Aondover Tarhule</a>, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/binghamton-university-state-university-of-new-york-2252">Binghamton University, State University of New York</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-use-satellites-to-measure-water-scarcity-120055">original article</a>.

Here’s how satellites are used to measure water scarcity

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Starting from the first of July, Ghanaians will be paying 8.01 per cent higher for water according to the new tariffs permitted by Ghana’s Public Utility Regulatory Commission. While electricity tariffs were also raised by just over 11 per cent.

Ghana hikes water, electricity tariffs

By <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gaathier-mahed-185827">Gaathier Mahed</a>, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/nelson-mandela-university-1946">Nelson Mandela University</a>


When you think of a country’s water resources, you may not realise that there are many kinds. Some is surface water, such as dams and rivers. There’s also groundwater, which includes aquifers and, in some places, artificial recharge schemes that transfer surface water below-ground to store it.

Ideally, countries should take an integrated approach to water resource management to help reduce strain on specific water resources while also extending the lifespan of a region’s water supply. Crucially, it involves efficiently managing surface and groundwater resources in tandem.

Many African countries tend to mismanage their groundwater resources. In many instances it’s over exploited and heavily contaminated and in other situations it is merely considered an emergency resource. Instead of managing their aquifers, they advocate for the <a href="http://blog.worldagroforestry.org/index.php/2017/05/10/kenya-launches-national-program-to-harvest-rainwater/">construction of dams to capture surface water</a>. 

This approach might work in wealthier countries that can afford to invest in massive infrastructure. It might also be viable in places that don’t record such high rates of surface water evaporation. But it’s not ideal for African countries. 

Some years ago, my colleagues and I set out to see whether Southern Africa was ready to shift its focus towards groundwater and, ultimately, to integrated water resource management. To do this, <a href="https://scholar.google.co.za/citations?user=m6uqRGMAAAAJ&amp;hl=en#d=gs_md_cita-d&amp;p=&amp;u=%2Fcitations%3Fview_op%3Dview_citation%26hl%3Den%26user%3Dm6uqRGMAAAAJ%26citation_for_view%3Dm6uqRGMAAAAJ%3Au5HHmVD_uO8C%26tzom%3D-120">we assessed</a> how countries in the <a href="https://www.sadc.int/">Southern African Development Community</a> were managing their ground water resources. 

We found that the majority of the countries, have poor governance and record keeping of groundwater resources. Widespread degradation and groundwater contamination were also among the major issues. And, though a few years have passed since this work was done, there have been no real improvements. This is worrying, since the continent’s water problems are <a href="https://thewaterproject.org/water-crisis/water-in-crisis-rural-urban-africa">only getting worse</a>.

These countries and others like them need to develop policy and legislation that stops treating groundwater like an afterthought. Countries must also invest in developing people with the technical skills needed to manage all elements of a water plan, whether that relates to surface water or groundwater. And more public education drives are needed so that ordinary people start understanding the value of groundwater, and protecting this precious resource accordingly.

<h2>Creating a protocol</h2>

Our first step in <a href="https://scholar.google.co.za/citations?user=m6uqRGMAAAAJ&amp;hl=en#d=gs_md_cita-d&amp;p=&amp;u=%2Fcitations%3Fview_op%3Dview_citation%26hl%3Den%26user%3Dm6uqRGMAAAAJ%26citation_for_view%3Dm6uqRGMAAAAJ%3Au5HHmVD_uO8C%26tzom%3D-120">this study</a> was to create a framework for assessing the status of countries’ groundwater management. We drew a number of insights from the <a href="http://www.amcow-online.org/">African Ministerial Council on Water</a>; examined countries’ available documents related to groundwater; assessed scientific literature on the subject and weighed this all up against generally accepted “best practice” in the field of water management.

The <a href="https://www.gwp.org/">Global Water Partnership’s</a> integrated water resource management <a href="https://www.gwp.org/en/learn/iwrm-toolbox/About_IWRM_ToolBox/">toolbox</a> provided a useful benchmark for our work. We drew from its parameters to give countries a rating of “good”, “limited” or “below expectation” in different categories related to water management.

Some countries performed reasonably well. Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Mauritius, for instance, have functional groundwater databases. This means that they are keeping records of what is occurring in terms of groundwater projects, such as boreholes drilled, as best as they can.

But we identified major shortcomings, too.

Most countries in our study didn’t have any proper plans in place for managing their groundwater resources. Almost all were either over exploiting their groundwater or contaminating it.

<a href="https://www.crcpress.com/Groundwater-Pollution-in-Africa/Xu-Usher/p/book/9780415411677">Groundwater pollution</a> was among the big issues we identified. For example, people in villages often build pit latrines close to the wells from which they extract potable water. This is probably partly because people don’t know about the risks involved – but it’s also evidence of governments not doing enough to protect groundwater sources. 

These findings suggest that there’s much more to be done in terms of integrated water management in these countries. And groundwater management must be prioritised as part of this integrated approach. 

<h2>Plans and policies</h2>

Countries must develop policies and plans that include the management of existing dams and aquifers; offer guidelines for rainfall harvesting and outline effective irrigation strategies that don’t deplete groundwater resources.

One approach which could work particularly well is <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40899-017-0212-6">banking water in aquifers</a>. It involves inserting water from multiple sources into groundwater reservoirs so it can be tapped at a later stage. This method is already used in various parts of the world and is known as Managed Aquifer Recharge. 

Audits of water use, especially among industrial users, can be helpful in determining where wastage is happening. 

Governments can also develop educational interventions to teach people about different kinds of water resources and how to protect them from misuse, pollution or over use. This approach has been <a href="http://waqfacademy.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/SaniBook_Draft_2Aug09_1c_Part2_chapter13.pdf">very effective</a> in parts of the Middle East, where mosques and schools have been used to educate communities about water resources and proper use.<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107614/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important">

<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gaathier-mahed-185827">Gaathier Mahed</a>, Geohydrologist Department of Geosciences, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/nelson-mandela-university-1946">Nelson Mandela University</a>

This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/southern-african-nations-need-to-up-their-groundwater-management-game-107614">original article</a>.

Are Southern African nations doing enough to manage their groundwater resources?

Global agriculture is facing unprecedented challenges. It’s estimated that the world’s population will reach <a href="http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/Issues_papers/HLEF2050_Global_Agriculture.pdf">9.1 billion</a> by 2050 with an ever expanding middle class. Current food production levels will have to be increased <a href="http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/Issues_papers/HLEF2050_Global_Agriculture.pdf">by 70%</a> to meet future nutrition requirements.
At the same time, the challenges posed by climate change, water, nutrients and energy are converging.
About <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/world/high-price-desertification-23-hectares-land-minute">12 million hectares</a> of land becomes degraded each year. Droughts and floods are becoming more frequent and larger. For a host of reasons Africa is at the eye of this storm. Some reasons include the fact that southern Africa has already <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229571074_An_overview_of_environmental_issues_in_Southern_Africa?_esc=publicationCoverPdf&amp;el=1_x_2&amp;enrichId=rgreq-f66703e9002784161a8ae55da3316e2b-XXX&amp;enrichSource=Y292ZXJQYWdlOzIyOTU3MTA3NDtBUzoxMDIyMDQyNTgxMjc4ODNAMTQwMTM3ODgwMjc3Ng%3D%3D">lost 25% of its soil fertility</a>. And some countries on the continent have some of the highest population growth rates globally.
All of these issues must be tackled. And good water management is among the most crucial factors if Africa is to navigate an uncertain future. Water is essential for agriculture. African countries must, as a matter of urgency, develop coherent and strategic policies around water, land and agriculture.
There is work underway, including <a href="https://gwf.usask.ca/impc/about/about-us.php">my own research</a> and projects being run in <a href="https://www.fruitlook.co.za/">South Africa</a> and <a href="https://www.waterexchange.com.au/">Australia</a>, that might hold lessons for African countries which want to manage their water better.
The initiatives include investing in irrigation infrastructure, the smart use of technology in water management such as tools to predict and manage the flow of water, as well as mobile apps for farmers.
<h2>Investment</h2>
Irrigated agriculture is <a href="http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/Y3918E/y3918e10.htm">much more productive</a> than rain fed agriculture. That’s why both land and water management must be considered within the question of achieving sustainable and productive agriculture.
In North America’s highly productive arid prairie regions, such as the Prairie provinces of Canada (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba) and the prairie regions of the US, governments and farmers <a href="http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/may-2017/sustainable-agriculture-and-innovation/">have invested</a> a lot of capital into groundwater and surface water extraction, as well as irrigation infrastructure.
That has allowed the development of increasingly intensive and productive agriculture. Similar investments into irrigation infrastructure are needed in Africa to boost agricultural productivity. Some examples of fairly complex and extensive irrigation schemes do already exist in Africa. One is the transfer of water from the Gariep Dam to the Fish and Sundays rivers in the Eastern Cape province, which supports intensive citrus farming. Although the ecological sustainability of this example is questionable, it does show that Africa has the capacity to develop irrigation schemes.
Such highly productive agricultural regions will be essential for ensuring future food security, both nationally and internationally. Regions in Africa with high potential for intensive, yet sustainable agriculture through irrigation will need to be identified and developed.
<h2>Technology</h2>
Technology is also playing an increasingly important role in farming, irrigation and water management.
Modelling tools such as hydrological and water management models have emerged as an essential component of water management. My colleagues and I at the <a href="https://gwf.usask.ca/impc/">Integrated Modelling Program for Canada</a> are developing tools that can be used to predict and manage the water flow and water quality of Canada’s large river basins. Similar initiatives are needed in other countries. The models developed, along with knowledge gained by our project, can help guide water management in other regions.
Other technological improvements include the development of smart plants that are more drought tolerant thanks to genetic modification and genome editing. Some plants can also be <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608535/to-feed-the-world-improve-photosynthesis/">engineered</a> to use more efficient photosynthetic pathways that fully use the sun’s available energy. This development holds promise for the hot climates of Africa.
Irrigation management is now using remote sensing data. Much of these data are freely available and cover the entire planet. For instance, remote sensing is used to pinpoint areas of wet and dry zones in cultivated fields. This allows for variable irrigation management and remote sensing estimates of crop water requirements. Australia’s <a href="https://irrisat-cloud.appspot.com/">IrriSAT</a>, which uses the <a href="http://irrisat-cloud.appspot.com/">Google Earth Engine</a>, is one example of this approach.
A South African technology is using <a href="https://www.fruitlook.co.za/">remote sensing</a> to help farmers in the Western Cape province save water.
<a href="https://www.newtimes.co.rw/section/read/223291">Mobile apps</a> are currently being piloted in Rwanda to help farmers. These will provide information on weather, rainfall and soil humidity to allow better farm management and productivity, as well as information on markets.
These are positive, but small, steps. It’s clear that the African continent has a lot of catching up to do if it’s to tackle its water management issues.
<h2>The way forward</h2>
African governments need to pursue collaborations with international institutions interested in working with the continent. For example, the <a href="http://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/home/?id=1395690825741">Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration</a> has shown interest in working with African governments. The organisation has developed expertise in managing drought and land degradation since it was established in the 1930s.
And established institutions in Africa such as the <a href="http://www.wrc.org.za/">Water Research Commission</a> and the <a href="http://www.arc.agric.za/Pages/Home.aspx">Agricultural Research Council</a> should be strengthened and new institutions created. This would encourage more sharing of knowledge throughout Africa.
 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101762/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />In addition, knowledge of best agricultural practices developed elsewhere should be assessed and adapted for African conditions. Importantly, efforts should be made to reduce the red tape that currently prevents the application of existing technology.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrew-slaughter-398809">Andrew Slaughter</a>, Visiting professor, <a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-saskatchewan-1403">University of Saskatchewan</a>
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-africa-can-up-its-game-on-water-management-for-agriculture-101762">original article</a>.

What Africa needs to do to ensure good water management for agriculture

By Leonie Joubert
Every morning, Maria Petrus* (*name has been changed) needs to be at the communal water tap in her village in Onesi Constituency, close to the northern Namibian border with Angola. She will unlock the faucet for about two hours while her fellow villagers come along with 25 litre cans, to collect their day’s water. Later that afternoon, Petrus will be back at the tap for another couple of hours, overseeing more water collection.
The 46 year old woman is a member of the village’s Water Point Committee (WPC), volunteers who manage the government’s water delivery to this rural community. She will keep a meticulous record of how much water individual households collect over the course of each month &#8211; there are about 70 households in her village &#8211; and, come month-end, the association’s secretary will collect payment for that month’s water purchases.
Sometimes the water collection points in these villages are little more than a single tap; sometimes they are a more sophisticated setup. But to do this job, Petrus and her fellow  committee volunteers must be able to read and write, and they must be young enough, and in good enough health, to get the site each day.
Volunteering comes with its own risks, too: it can keep the committee members from their crops or livestock, which are the bread-and-butter of this farming-dependent community.
They’ll also have to handle the difficulties that arise if people arrive late for water collection, after walking long distances to get their daily allocation. Or they’ll have to deal with possible conflict when cash-strapped families &#8211; possibly even their friends or neighbours &#8211; can’t service their debt, come pay-day.
Petrus’s story demonstrates the lived experience of a typical rural community in Namibia, where national government policy has passed the daily management of water distribution and payment on to local villagers as part of a move to boost water service delivery in this semi-arid part of Southern Africa.
‘This policy was part of Namibia’s attempt to improve water delivery through more inclusive governance since independence in 1990, and yet many such communal water systems in the north have been shut down because people can’t afford to pay for the state-supplied water,’ explains Irene Kunamwene, a doctoral researcher  working with the African Climate &amp; Development Initiative (<a href="http://acdi.uct.ac.za/">ACDI</a>)  at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. ‘When that happens, villagers rely on hang-dug wells near their homes, and draw their own free water during the dry season.’
This comes with significant risks, she says: the water may not be safe to drink, or children may fall into the wells.
Namibia embarked on a deliberate process of decentralising its water distribution and management, something which is part of a global trend towards a more inclusive approach to resource governance and management, according to another ACDI researcher, associate professor Gina Ziervogel.
However, when Kunamwene and her team visited villages in the Onesi Constituency in northern Namibia between 2015 and 2017, to test whether this management approach was working, they found that in many cases the committee volunteers who found themselves responsible for managing water distribution and payments did not have the skills, time, or capacity to fulfil their roles effectively.
‘In semi-arid parts of Southern Africa, like Namibia, water resources are already pressured,’ explains Ziervogel, ‘and things will get tougher in future as the climate here becomes hotter, drier, and less predictable.’
Ziervogel and Kunamwene’s findings draw a stark lesson for water managers in similar near-desert countries across the region: governments need to find appropriate and inclusive ways to manage a resource as scarce and susceptible to change as water. The better they handle the processes of managing water resources now, the better they’ll be able to adapt to the impacts of climate change on the resource in future.
Call for inclusive governance of scarce water resources 
After independence in 1990, Namibia’s national government began rolling out an expanded water infrastructure system, installing boreholes, communal taps, and shared animal water troughs in many remote villages. At the same time, the national government implemented the management system that decentralised the day-to-day administration of these water points to local communities.
When the ACDI researchers visited these communities, where employment is often low and people rely on farming and social grants to pay for state-supplied water, they found that this system of management had not necessarily helped to improve water delivery.
In a village like Petrus’s, the water point committee is made up of about seven members, who will need a range of skills in order to be effective.
The committee members must first consult with the community about how to structure water payment: should everyone pay a flat rate for daily water access, regardless of how much each person uses? Or should each person pay for what they take from the communal tap each day?
‘In some communities, you might have a powerful, rich person lobbying the committee to pay a flat fee per person,’ explains Ziervogel. ‘But this individual might have a large herd of cattle, and might want to take much more water each day than a poorer household with no livestock.’
Researchers found that this sort of situation quickly showed up the potential tensions in a community where people are already vying for a scarce resource, a situation which might become even more pressured in times of drought. When rainfall drops in semi-arid regions like Southern Africa, there is usually a decreased recharge of groundwater, which causes water to become brackish, or taps might even run dry.
‘Many of the communities we visited have chosen to charge each individual for the quantity of water they take from a communal tap over the course of a month. But this also results in its own management challenges, such as when poorer families can’t pay at the end of each month for the full amount they’ve taken, or the volunteer needing to capture exactly how much each household takes through the course of the month.’
The ACDI researchers, working alongside colleagues from the University of Namibia (UNAM), also unearthed the difficulties of the day-to-day management of the communal water points, such as that described by Petrus.
The person who volunteers for this job needs more than just numeracy skills to handle the payments. They need basic stationary. They also need specific mediation and management skills to oversee who takes how much water, and how to negotiate a situation where someone can’t afford to pay but still has a constitutional right to access water, explain Kunamwene and Ziervogel.
‘You can’t just hand this kind of responsibility to someone on the ground, with only a few days’ training, and expect them to know how to handle the situation,’ says Ziervogel.
When the infrastructure breaks, water point committee members often don’t know who they should report this to, don’t have the skills or means to make repairs themselves, or government response will be slow.
‘There’s a great deal of political will among local communities to take responsibility for their own communal water point management, but there often isn’t the skill or capacity to do so,’ says Ziervogel.
If countries in semi-arid climates around the world are to be more responsive to the challenges faced in the area of water management as climate shifts in future, they need to get a handle on these on-the-ground management issues today.
‘What comes through from this research is that the principle of decentralisation for water governance is good on paper, but in reality it’s very difficult to implement effectively and meet national service delivery goals,’ explains Ziervogel.
The ACDI findings show that when it comes to governance issues in managing increasingly pressured water resources in semi-arid countries, local communities should be included in governance processes, but that they need skills training and resources. Decision makers need to understand the unique context of each community situation. All involved parties need to meet regularly in order to build trust and agree, together, on appropriate water governance solutions. And all involved government departments need to work together to coordinate their joint responses, as the impacts of climate change on water resources are seldom the mandate of one department.

Why decentralised water could be the solution to Namibia’s water crisis

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This content was supplied to CNBC Africa by Standard Bank  
Everything Begins With Water
Water, the single greatest power to drive industrialisation, health and gender equality across the continent.
Water relates to all aspects of human development. 
663 million people in the world live without clean water. 
1 in 3 people don’t have a decent toilet. 
1 in 9 don’t have clean water close to home. 
Clean and safe water is essential to healthy living. 
Regardless of where you live
In Africa 
Water is a challenge.
Each part of the continent seems to face its own challenges associated with the water crisis, and the situation is far from ideal for anyone.
Rural communities 
The rural parts of Africa are probably the most seriously affected by a lack of clean drinking water. In these parts of the continent, people must walk miles every day to find any water at all, and the water they do find is usually packed with contaminants and pollution.
These communities are often hotbeds of disease because there is no sanitary way to help cure people who fall ill.
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They often don’t have access to toilets or any way to dispose of waste, so as one person becomes sick with diarrhoea it quickly spreads to the others in the community, all as a result of bad water.
Urban areas 
Many urban areas still don’t have dedicated methods of cleaning up the water supply before it is used by the population.
The lack of plumbing or waste removal option causes bacteria, parasites and other contaminants to build of quickly and damage the water supply.
Unfortunately, water strain is a big issue in these places, as massive populations place high demands on surface water sources that are slowly dwindling.
Agriculture 
Agriculture puts a huge strain on the water supply while simultaneously causing it to be even more polluted than it ordinarily would be.
The agricultural sector uses surface water much more often than ground water. This practice is contributing to the drying up of large bodies of water and rivers across the continent.
Wetlands 
From freshwater forests to saline lakes and massive floodplains, Africa’s wetlands are among the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the world.
They perform important ecological functions such as filtering water and improving air quality.
Rapid urbanisation, pollution, draining for agriculture, as well as challenges posed by climate change are threatening wetlands across the continent.
There are other areas that feel the strain of the water crisis in Africa, and it’s safe to assume that everyone and everywhere is affected by it in some way.
For the first time, a major international city will likely run out of water. 
‘Day zero’ – the day when the taps run dry.
Despite the depth and the breadth of the challenges at hand, solutions are within reach.
Innovation, technology and training are an essential part of creating sustainable solutions.
Many organisations are building sustainable, community-owned water projects to help improve the water situation in Africa.
Communities are working together to solve their water problems:
Community managed latrines 
Gravity-fed Schemes 
Hand dug wells 
Rehabbed wells 
Bore-hole wells 
Solar disinfection systems 
Hand pumps 
household sanitation 
Spring water protection 
Rain water harvesting 
Sanitation and hygiene practices 
Urban pit waste management 
Wastewater treatment 
Sand dams 
Fog harvesting 
Portable water purification
The Hippo Water Roller was developed by two South Africans, Pettie Petzer and Johan Jonker, in response to the daily struggle of rural women and children across Africa to access safe, drinkable water.
Mark Algra of Cape Town, created Aquatrap to save water, by using recycled tyres. Algra has been implementing his design at local schools.
He assists in educating children on how to save water, by providing with knowledge that they can take home and share with their families and communities.
The blend of solutions can balance competing demands on the finite resource and help to ensure that Africa is able to meet its water needs both today and in the future.
Water, the single greatest power to drive industrialisation, health and education across the continent.
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Africa has a water crisis but these innovations could fix it

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A recent survey by the East African Institute and the Aga Khan University found that Nairobi’s food system is fragile due poor infrastructure such as water and sanitation. With the city being among the fastest growing in terms of urbanisation in Africa, experts warn that insufficient connectivity and basic amenities are continually increasing the cost of food for urban households. Alex Awiti, Director of the East African Institute joins CNBC Africa for more.

Survey exposes Nairobi’s fragile food system

<div class="event-banner"><a href="https://www.weforum.org/events/annual-meeting-of-the-new-champions-2017">This article is part of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2017</a></div>
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A diverse range of breakthrough technologies, including “artificial leaves” that turn CO2 into fuel, and a technique that harvests water from air, could soon be playing a role in tackling the world’s most pressing challenges, according to a list published today by the World Economic Forum.
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The technologies were selected by the World Economic Forum’s <a href="https://www.weforum.org/communities/expert-network">Expert Network</a> and <a href="https://www.weforum.org/communities/global-future-councils">Global Future Councils</a> in collaboration with Scientific American and its Board of Advisors. Each technology was chosen for its potential to improve lives, transform industries and safeguard the planet. The experts were also looking for indications that the technologies have reached a level of maturity that would enable widespread take-up in the coming 3-5 years.
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“New technologies are redefining industries, blurring traditional boundaries and creating new opportunities on a scale never seen before. Public and private institutions must develop the correct policies, protocols and collaborations to allow such innovation to build a better future, while avoiding the risks that unchecked technological change could pose,” said Murat Sönmez, Head of the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and Member of the Managing Board of the World Economic Forum.
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The top 10 technologies to make this year&#8217;s list are:
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1. Liquid biopsies
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Liquid biopsies mark a step forward in the fight against cancer. First, they are an alternative where traditional tissue-based biopsies are not possible. Second, they provide a full spectrum of information compared to tissue samples, which only reflect the information available in the sample. Lastly, by homing in on circulating-tumor DNA (ctDNA), genetic material that routinely finds its way from cancer cells into the bloodstream, disease progression or resistance to treatment can be spotted much faster than otherwise relying on symptoms or imaging.
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2. Harvesting clean water from air
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The ability to extract clean water from air is not new, however existing techniques require high moisture levels and a lot of electricity. This is changing. A team from MIT and University of California, Berkeley has successfully tested a process using porous crystals that convert the water using no energy at all. Another approach, by a start-up called Zero Mass Water from Arizona is able to produce 2-5 litres of water a day based on an off-grid solar system.
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3. Deep learning for visual tasks
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Computers are beginning to recognize images better than humans. Thanks to deep learning, an emerging field of artificial intelligence, computer-vision technologies are increasingly being used in applications as diverse as driving autonomous vehicles, medical diagnostics, damage assessment for insurance claims and monitoring of water levels and crop yield.
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4. Liquid fuels from sunshine
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Can we mimic the humble leaf to create an artificial photosynthesis to generate and store energy? The prospects are looking increasingly positive. The answer lies in using sunlight-activated catalysts to split water molecules into water and hydrogen, and then using the same hydrogen to convert CO2 into hydrocarbons. Such a closed system &#8211; wherein CO2 emitted by combustion is then transformed back into fuel instead of the atmosphere &#8211; could prove to be revolutionary for the solar and wind industries.
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5. The Human Cell Atlas
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An international collaboration aimed at deciphering the human body, called the Human Cell Atlas, was launched in October 2016. The project, backed by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative aims to identify every cell type in every tissue; learn exactly which genes, proteins and other molecules are active in each type and the processes which control that activity; determine where the cells are located exactly; how the cells normally interact with one another, and what happens to the body’s functioning when genetic or other aspects of a cell undergo change, among other things. The end product will be an invaluable tool for improving and personalizing health care.
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6. Precision farming
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The Fourth Industrial Revolution is providing farmers with a new set of tools to boost crop yield and quality while reducing water and chemical use. Sensors, robots, GPS, mapping tools and data-analytics software are all being used to customize the care that plants need. While the prospect of using drones to capture plant health in real time may be some way off for most of the world’s farmers, low-tech techniques are coming online too. Salah Sukkarieh, of the University of Sydney, for instance, has demonstrated a streamlined, low-cost monitoring system in Indonesia that relies on solar power and cell phones.
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7. Affordable catalysts for green vehicles
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Progress is being made on a promising zero-emission technology, the hydrogen-fed fuel cell. Progress to date has been stymied by the high price of catalysts which contain platinum. However, much progress has been made reducing reliance on this rare and expensive metal, and the latest developments involve catalysts that include no platinum, or in some cases no metal at all.
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8. Genomic vaccines
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Vaccines based on genes are superior to more conventional ones in a number of ways. They are faster to manufacture for one thing, which is crucial at times of a violent outbreak. Compared to manufacturing proteins in cell cultures or eggs, producing genetic material should also be simpler and less expensive. A genomics-based approach to vaccines also enables more rapid adaptation in the event of a pathogen mutating, and finally allows scientists to identify people who are resistant to a pathogen, isolate the antibodies that provide that protection, and design a gene sequence that will induce a person’s cells to produce those antibodies.
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9. Sustainable design of communities
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Applying green construction to multiple buildings at once has the potential to revolutionize the amount of energy and water we consume. Sending locally-generated solar power to a smart microgrid could reduce electricity consumption by half and reduce carbon emissions to zero if a project currently under development at the University of California at Berkeley Goes to plan. Meanwhile, the same project’s plan to re-design water systems so that waste water from toilets and drains is treated and re-used on site, with rainwater diverted to toilets and washers, could cut demand for potable water by 70%.
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10. Quantum computing
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Quantum computers’ almost limitless potential has only ever been matched by the difficulty and cost of their construction. Which explains why today the small ones that have been built have not yet managed to exceed the power of supercomputers. But progress is being made and in 2016 the technology firm IBM provided the public access to the first quantum computer in the cloud. This has already led to more than 20 academic papers being published using the tool and today more than 50 start-ups and large corporations worldwide are focused on making quantum computing a reality. With such progress behind us, the word on people’s lips now is “Quantum Ready.”
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These are the top 10 emerging technologies of 2017

South Africa&#8217;s tourist capital Cape Town remains gripped by critical water shortages despite being lashed by torrential rains last week in the region&#8217;s worst storm in 30 years, officials said on Tuesday.
More than eight people were killed and thousands forced from their homes after gale force winds and flash floods hit shanty towns already coping with Cape Town&#8217;s worst drought in a century.
&#8220;It may take a few seasons of normal rainfall for the dams to recover and therefore continuing to cut water use drastically is vital,&#8221; said Xanthea Limberg, the city&#8217;s mayoral committee member responsible for water services.
Limberg said if rainfall does not significantly boost dam levels, Cape Town could run out of water by September.
Dams supplying Cape Town&#8217;s residents, who face mandatory water restrictions, are lying at 21.2 percent capacity, or an effective 11.2 percent, as the last 10 percent of the dam&#8217;s water is unusable, officials said.
Limberg told Reuters the city expects a new pilot desalination plant, capable of producing 2 million liters per day, to be operational by December before &#8220;accelerated full-scale&#8221; implementation of the technology.
The plant, being developed in partnership with power utility Eskom&#8217;s Koeberg nuclear station, forms part of a 300 million rand ($23 million) three-year budget as the city looks for alternative sources of water, including tapping an underground aquifer at Table Mountain.
&#8220;We are exploring the rental of off-shore modular desalination units that could, together with other emergency interventions, yield up to 500 million liters per day should Cape Town’s dams dry up,&#8221; Limberg said.
($1 = 12.7900 rand)
(Reporting by Wendell Roelf; Editing by Joe Brock)

Storms in South Africa’s Cape fail to stem water shortages

Drought conditions associated with an El Nino weather pattern are likely to reoccur in a few months time, the South African government said on Thursday.
&#8220;Recurrence of El Niño drought conditions likely &#8230; The next summer season has increased the likelihood for the development of El Nino conditions which are often associated with drought and water scarcity as seen recently in South Africa,&#8221; the government said in a statement.
The previous El Nino, which faded in May of last year, brought widespread drought to southern Africa, hitting crop production and fuelling inflation across the region while leaving millions in need of food aid. South Africa&#8217;s weather service and global forecasters have predicted that El Nino will form again in the southern hemisphere winter or spring, which falls between July and September.
&#8220;The likelihood has increased from previous assessments and as we near the winter period, these forecasts improve in reliability,&#8221; the government said.
It said the issue had been raised at a meeting on Wednesday of the National Disaster Management Advisory Forum (NDMAF), which coordinates the government&#8217;s response to such events. The forum will meet again on May 11.
If El Nino does return between July or September, it would be the first time it reformed so quickly since the mid-1960s.
El Nino is a warming of ocean surface temperatures in the eastern and central Pacific that occurs every few years, with global consequences. In Africa it often brings excessive rains to the east while the southern cone gets parched.
(Reporting by Ed Stoddard; Editing by Susan Fenton and David Evans)

South Africa could face another El Nino drought soon

The World Bank&#8217;s board of executive directors has approved a $225 million loan to Tanzania to improve water supply in the African nation&#8217;s commercial capital Dar es Salaam, the bank said.    
Tanzania plans to raise $900 million in fiscal year 2016/17 to fund public investment projects in the transport, energy and water sectors. Loans and grants are an important source of foreign exchange for east Africa&#8217;s second-biggest economy.   
&#8220;Dar es Salaam currently accounts for 40 percent of the urban population or 4.4 million inhabitants &#8230; and is expected to continue to be the favoured destination for the bulk of new urban residents,&#8221; the bank said in a statement late on Thursday.
The bank said the new financing, which is expected to benefit close to 2 million people, will support the strengthening of capacities for integrated water resources planning and management in Tanzania and improve access to water supply and sanitation services.﻿

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water

In the future there will be more rain but less water in the Nile Basin, what can be done?

GRUNDFOS MD Sandager on how to solve water crisis in Africa

Egypt, Ethiopia to hold talks over Nile dam hydropower dispute

Op-Ed: The best hope for solving the global water crisis

Free State to face low water supply following LHWP shut down

This East African country’s future is tied to water – a vital yet threatened resource in a changing climate

Here’s how satellites are used to measure water scarcity

Ghana hikes water, electricity tariffs

Are Southern African nations doing enough to manage their groundwater resources?

What Africa needs to do to ensure good water management for agriculture

Why decentralised water could be the solution to Namibia’s water crisis

Africa has a water crisis but these innovations could fix it

Survey exposes Nairobi’s fragile food system

These are the top 10 emerging technologies of 2017

Storms in South Africa’s Cape fail to stem water shortages

South Africa could face another El Nino drought soon

World Bank approves $225mn loan for Tanzania's water sector

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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