First Water Scarcity Index

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 As state in the previous blog, water shortage has emerged as one of the biggest limitations on industrial and human development in Africa; It ranks one of the top three global risk concerns with almost four billion people facing severe water scarcity (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2016) and according to the World Economic Forum, water crisis a problem in all African countries at all levels. Despite some countries having high availability of water in Africa, the unpredictable and low water supply in comparison with the high demand and poor use of available water resources label Africa a water constrained continent. This blog will explain more on water scarcity index in Africa.

A Swedish hydrologist (Frankerman, 1986), came up with a water measuring index that mainly measures the levels of water stress. This method includes the total freshwater resources in a given population and the area’s population. According to this measure, if fresh water is below 1700cubic meters per person per year, the area is said to be undergoing water stress. If below 1000cubic meters per person per year, the area is said to be experiencing water scarcity while if it’s below 500 cubic meters per person per year, the area is said to be under absolute water scarcity


Figure 1: Global Coverage of Drinking Water

Source: (GGRC, 2015)

Three countries in North Africa (i.e. Algeria, Libya and Tunisia) are considered to be water scarce because their average annual water availability is below 500 cubic meters of water capita. They are therefore ranked among the countries with absolute water scarcity. In North America still, there is over 90% coverage of fresh water for sanitation and drinking while Sub Saharan Africa whose water availability exceed the 1700 cubic meters of water capita threshold to show no water scarcity while at the same time has 40% of the population has no access to fresh water for sanitation and drinking (UN, 2012). This goes to prove that water scarcity and availability are related yet two very different concepts. This also goes to prove that the water scarcity problem in many parts of Africa is not physical but institutional, economical and managerial.

With 66% of Africa being Arid or semi-arid, shortage of water is real especially due to the very rapidly growing population and limited resources for water improvement.  Out of 800 million, 300 million people in Africa experience water scarcity (Rodriguez, 2019) . With a very large gap between the rich and poor, over 90% of the very rich have improved water sources, over 60% use piped water while in rural areas, piped or improved water is almost non-existent.

Figure 2: Drinking Water Coverage According to Status Quo

Source: (UN, 2012) .

Across Africa, there’s an average rainfall of about 670mm/year but due to the hot weather, the evaporation rate greatly lowers the share of condensation that is contributed to renewable fresh water reserves in the continent.  There is also uneven rainfall distribution where some areas receive extremely low rainfall and with the economic situation in Africa, it becomes very hard to distribute the available water equally. In fact, in areas with very high rainfall like those near the Indian Ocean, a lot of water goes to waste during rainy seasons due to lack of adequate storages.

 

According to FAO, the total withdrawal of water in Africa is around 227 km3/year while 220 km3 are from freshwater resources and the rest is from chemical treatment. According to global statistics by AQUASTAT, the measure of water withdrawal in Africa’s agricultural sector is the largest at approximately 184 km3 which equates to a total of close to 81% of total withdrawals. The second largest water user in Africa is the municipal sector, which used around 33 km3 which approximates to about 15% of total withdrawals and with about 9 km3 which rounds off to about 4% of total withdrawals, the industrial sector is the least water consumer (FAO, 2016).

Water scarcity has led to poor sanitation with only a quarter of the population in some countries being able to access proper sanitation. This brings about serious health problems with diseases like cholera being one of the leading killer diseases in Africa with 115 people dying every day due to diseases linked to contaminated water, poor hygiene and sanitation.


Figure 3: World Sanitation Coverage 2010.

Source: (UNICEF REPORT, 2012)

More than a quarter of the population in Africa spends approximately half an hour per trip to collect water. With the rising population accelerating demand for water, there is increases degradation of water resources. With the natural rate of population growth in the world being 1.2%, Africa’s rate is 2.6% meaning that the estimated population by 2025 will be 1245 million. Efforts to reduce water challenges through the United Nations water-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have not been successful especially in sub-Saharan Africa which has only 61% of the population having water coverage (UN, 2012)

In my next blog I will talk about some causes and consequences of water scarcity in Africa.  Stay turned.  

Comments

  1. maha hussein31 December 2020 at 04:26

    This blog was interesting. You clearly explained the water stress index and added graphs to help your explanation in a more visual way.

    One thing to maybe improve is having a conclusion to wrap up what you are saying and come to a final point.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. becca12 January 2021 at 17:07

      thank you for your comments and I think your suggestion is very useful for me

      Delete

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