Climate Change and Water Supplies in Africa (Part One)

By

Joachim Ezeji

 

As we proceed with the twenty-first century, one-third of the world’s population live in countries with moderate to high water stress. This is particularly so in Africa where development has put additional pressures on water resources and the environment, and these pressures are set to mount further still.

According to the WHO/UNICEF JMP 2008 Report; 87 per cent of the world’s current population uses drinking water from improved sources. Out of this number; 54 per cent uses a piped connection in their dwelling, plot or yard, and 33 per cent uses other improved drinking water sources.

 

This translates into 5.7 billion people worldwide who are now using drinking water from an improved source, an increase of 1.6 billion since 1990. About 3.6 billion people use a piped connection that provides running water in or near their homes.

 

However, estimates for 2006 as reported in this report show that the population reliant on unimproved drinking water sources is below one billion, and now stands at 884 million.  Improved drinking water coverage in sub-Saharan Africa is still considerably lower than in other regions. Nevertheless, it has increased from 49 per cent in 1990 to 58 per cent in 2006, which means that an additional 207 million Africans are now using safe drinking water while 42 per cent are using unsafe or unimproved water sources.

The world is on track to meet

Unimproved drinking water sources according to the JMP include; unprotected dug well, unprotected spring,

cart with small tank/drum, tanker truck, and surface water (river, dam, lake, pond, stream, canal, irrigation channels),and  bottled water etc while other improved drinking water sources include  Public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs and rainwater collection.

The category ‘improved drinking water sources’ includes sources that, by nature of their construction or through active intervention, are protected from outside contamination, particularly faecal matter. These include piped water in a dwelling, plot or yard, and other improved sources.

 

However and beyond all these concerns, are other concerns of Accessibility, Affordability and Sufficiency of water supplies. According to the UNHABITAT as quoted by Alabaster (2008); Accessibility means obtaining water by the households without taking undue proportion of the household’s time (less than one hour a day) for the minimum sufficient quantity of at least 20 liters per person per day. Affordability means water not taking undue proportion of a household’s income i.e. less than 10 percent. Sufficiency means water being available at a quantity of at least 20 liters per person per day.

 

Further to the foregoing, Alabaster (2008) defines a household as having access to improved water sources if it has sufficient amount of water for family use, at an affordable price, available to household members without being subject to excessive physical effort and time. According to Alabaster (2008); access to water decreases when quantity, cost and burden of fetching water is considered.

 

This was corroborated by JMP 2008 report which notes that when drinking water is not available in the home or close to it, the time taken to collect water (that is, to go to the source, stand in line, fill water containers and return home) is critical in determining whether a household can obtain enough water for drinking, food   preparation and personal hygiene.

 

JMP 2008 further underscores that studies have found that if the time spent collecting drinking water is between 3 and 30 minutes, the amount collected is fairly constant and suitable to meet basic needs – defined as between 15 and 25 liters per person per day. However, if the total time taken per round trip exceeds 30 minutes, people tend to collect less water, thus compromising their basic drinking water needs.

 

The JMP 2008 also notes that the MDG indicator does not include a measure for time taken to collect water. However, some argue that, because it is a factor in drinking water use, the time needed to collect water should be considered when determining whether a source is ‘improved’ or not. Data from 35 recent household surveys show that 18 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa relies on an improved drinking water source that is more than 30 minutes away. (JMP; 2008).

 

In addition to managing risks and sustainably adapting to climate change; and if success is to be made in the foregoing scenario, it is germane to also overcome the traditional problems of decaying water treatment plants and water pipes, insufficient capacity, and poor quality and quantity of water supply; lack of management capacity because of neglecting non-technical factors; weak financial structure and difficulty of new investments, because of high rate of non-revenue water, low water fees which cannot recover the costs, and over staffing, etc that are common in most water utilities in Africa.

A typical case is the Lagos State Water Corporation. Here, the water distribution network can only reach one in every three of the 15 million inhabitants of the city. Yet, they projected population growth of 4% per annum of the city means that the city’s water demand, will double by the year 2020. The cost of meeting current and projected demand has been put at around $2.5 billion over the next 20 years.

A World Bank 2003 report had stressed how the abysmal performance of public utilities has come to symbolize the poorest aspects of governance in Nigeria. Using Lagos as a reference the report revealed that being neglected and close to collapse, the publicly run Lagos State Water Corporation holds the dubious distinction of having the highest recorded level of unaccounted-for-water in the world. Only 4 percent of its water production capacity goes towards the creation of revenue.

 

 Unaccounted-for-water is the most common measure of the efficiency of a water company. The World Bank (2003) defines it as “the difference between the quantity of water supplied to a network and the metered water by the customer” It has two components; physical losses due to leakage from pipes; and administrative losses due to illegal connections and under registration of water meters.

 

However, no serious focus seems to have exerted on the existing or potential impact of global climate change on household water supplies and other related issues in Africa. Till this is done critical development needs in this sector may continue to lack behind. This is particularly so for urban areas which will strongly influence the world of the 21^st century because of the rapidity and irreversibility of the urbanization process; UNHABITAT as was quoted by Alabaster (2008).

 

 No doubt, climate change has, for some time now, been generating a lot of debate across the globe. In many parts of the world, including Africa, it is already occurring and future changes are inevitable. These changes, according to experts, could result in economic losses of about 5-20% of global GDP. (AfDB; 2008)

 

 It is estimated that, over the coming decades, the continent may lose between 1-2% of its GDP, with some sectors likely to face greater challenges. It is believed that some African countries face reductions in yields from rain-fed agriculture of up to 50% by 2020. (AfDB; 2008).

 

Many experts around the world believe that Africa is particularly vulnerable, as evidenced by the impact of current climate variability and weather extremes such as floods, droughts and storms which severely affect economic performance, livelihoods and key assets, including natural resources as well as transport and energy infrastructure.

While greenhouse gas emission mitigation is crucial to limit long-term climate change, in the short-to-medium term, adaptation to climate change is the only option to manage the impact of climate change with a view to maximizing development outcomes. In Africa, adaptation to climate change is a development priority and this constitutes the focus of the proposed research as so captioned.

 On the other hand Nigeria’s high dependence upon natural resources makes its people especially those in the oil rich Niger Delta particularly vulnerable to environmental changes. This vulnerability relates to many natural and human phenomena; including climate change and variability; pollution, population growth, water scarcity; and knowledge gaps.

To be continued.

 

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