Is Africa Short of Water?

In this blog post, I will explore the complexities of water scarcity in Africa. Through scholars like Falkenmark (1989) and Taylor (2009), I will investigate how Africa’s water is geographically uneven and what this means for the continent. 

 

It has been a week since I last added to this blog. However, a few days ago, I spoke with my brother about Africa's food and water scarcity issue. I recall my brother telling me "why can't they [Africa] just make more food by getting water from the ground". I reflected on his comments for a moment. However, I then realised the challenges facing the continent, meaning there is no single approach to addressing Africa's scarcity of water and food. This week's blog post will focus on the role of water in food production, but it will also explore this idea of 'water scarcity.'

 

Why is water important?

Water is paramount for so many reasons, so I could not list them all. However, as Shiklomanov (2000) pointed out, water is fundamental in food production, with 68% of global freshwater withdrawals being utilised for agriculture (fig. 2). Water is used across farming, but most notably, it is used to irrigate crops and feed livestock (Allan 2001). Many individuals may initially associate Africa as an arid continent, where farming and food production are infrequent. However, in reality, 83.1% of freshwater withdrawals in 2000 in Africa were used in agriculture, according to Wada et al. (2012) (fig. 3). Despite this promising statistic, the reality of Africa is that much of its land has yet to be irrigated, in fact, according to recent figures around 4% of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is irrigated (Siebert et al. 2010). Despite the known value of agriculture in food security and poverty alleviation, why does Africa continue to rank at the bottom of global agricultural production? Well, the answer is complicated, but much of it is to do with water scarcity. 

Fig. 2: Global share of water withdrawals by industry (Wada et al. 2012)

Fig. 3: Africa’s share of water withdrawals by industry (Wada et al. 2012)

Where is Africa’s water?

In short, Africa's situation is not one of quantity, but rather one of distribution. As Africa has varying geologies, seasons and climates, water is inevitably accessible in varying quantities across the continent. Falkenmark (1989) has been a critical scholar concerning this question of scarcity. She devised the Water Stress Index (WSI), which quantifies ‘water scarcity’ as an individual having <1,000 m³ of water per year. Quantifying adequate water access can prove tricky. Hence a better definition has been Taylor (2009: 237) who suggested water scarcity as "a shortage in the availability of freshwater relative to demand". Utilising Taylor’s (2009) definition, areas in North, East and Southern Africa that can be seen in fig. 4, should technically see little agricultural productivity as they are 'water-scarce', right? However, these water-scarce regions still see substantial agricultural activity (fig. 4 and 6). The reason behind this strange correlation is the role of groundwater storage. Much of agricultural production relies on renewable groundwater supplies. Henceforth, regions in North and East Africa have been able to grow produce, despite their extremely arid conditions, primarily due to their underlying aquifers (Quadri 2019) (fig.5). However, other parts of Africa are not so lucky in having this abundance of exploitable groundwater. Geological factors often impede the abstraction of groundwater across Africa. Likewise, in the poorest regions of Central and Southern Africa, abstracting groundwater is economically unviable given infrastructure costs. An increasing population and the growing threat of climate change have only worsened this situation, as water and food demands have grown. However, supplies are likely to fall without appropriate action (Bonneuil and Fressoz 2017).

Fig. 4: Water scarcity in Africa according to Falkenmark’s (1989) classifications

Fig. 5: Groundwater stores in Africa (MacDonald et al. 2012)

Fig. 6: Map showing agricultural land use in Africa (Thornton 2014)

Long story short, Africa has ample water supplies, but it is a question of where this water is situated. This blog entry highlighted why water is vital for food production, but it also underlined the challenge of water being unevenly distributed across Africa. Many countries in Africa have abundant water supplies beneath their feet. However, it is a question of how to sustainably exploit this liquid gold for those lucky countries.