African Unification Front
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OVERVIEW OF WATERSHED DYNAMICS IN THE AFRICAN UNION
Oldonyo Lengai in Africa's Great Rift Valley
The African Union consists of a vast, rolling plateau, marked by a number of large saucer shaped-basins. Low-lying coastal strips, with the exception of the mediterranean coast and of the Guinea Coast, are generally narrow and rise sharply to the plateau.
Because most of the continent has not been covered by sea for millions of years, soils have developed locally, chiefly by weathering, although some areas have soils transported by rivers or ocean currents. African soils, for the most part have irregular drainage and no definite water tables. Most are relatively infertile due to mineral leaching from heavy rainfall and high temperatures. Desert soils (arid soils) which have little organic content also cover large areas.
The 5 largest basins in Africa are: Nile Basin, Congo Basin, Chad Basin, Niger Basin, and Zambezi Basin. These 5 large basins cover 42% of geographical Africa and sustain over 50% of the African population. In total there are 62 significant river basins which cover 63% of the total area of Africa and sustain 100% of the people.
Population density is highest in the Nile Basin, followed by the Niger basin. The Zambezi basin has the highest population growth, the Congo has the second highest population growth and the Chad has the lowest of all the large five. [The Sango Bank, a 100km-deep ring surrounding L. Victoria has the highest population growth in Africa, however, it falls in the Nile Basin which has a larger overall population and a much larger geographical area].
Each of the big basins covers at least 8 constituent republics of the African Union, and provide the main source of water for drinking, agro-economic activity, and construction. Population concentration, land degradation, deforestation, industrial and agricultural polution, all affect rainfall, and the productivity of the rivers and their basins.
Moreover, only 7% of the biodiversity-rich tropical evergreen broadleaf forests in Africa are in protected areas. The most valuable natural forests are located in the Congo and Madagascar and lack protected status. Huge tracts of Congo forests are being logged by Canadian and American corporations.
The AUF aims to establish a wider network of protected areas, and raise the percentage of protected forest from 7% to over 100% of current forest growth. The AUF government of unity will allocate funds out of a continental budget to conduct effective long-term research and enforcement to ensure the protection of endagered and endemic species of Africa's most remarkable game fauna and flora.
The water shortages in Africa will become more critical in years to come. Options to resolve the shortages may include substituting high water intake cash crops for food crop in the large government funded irrigation projects such as Gezira, or the Inner Delta. Also we may have to consider more water resevoirs up higher near water sources, especially for those river basins with high seasonality.
Over 97% of the world's water is saline and in oceans. Of the 2.5% of water which is fresh, only 3% is directly available as part of the cycle of rainfall and evaporation, in rivers and lakes; the rest is in ice, permanent snow, and fossil groundwater. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is in no doubt that "human demands are about to collide with the ability of the hydrological cycle to supply water". The consequences for agriculture will be drastic.
The theft of water by farmers from a community water supply project in Kenya made news in 2000. Water was being diverted for irrigation of mange-tout peas, a chic item on European dinner tables. Along with strawberries and soft fruits, these peas are grown in increasing volumes in many parts of Africa and air-freighted to meet out-of-season demand in European markets.
The export of food crops and other biomass also represents the export of a very scarce resource-water. According to the World Water Council, a global think tank on water issues, by the year 2050, water shortages are forecast in more than 70 countries, including 35 in Africa and several in the Caribbean, resulting in what is called 'water stress'.
Agriculture is the major consumer of water. "Irrigation uses more than two-thirds of the world's available freshwater resources, producing 35% of the world's agricultural output from 17% of the world's arable land. In all, agriculture uses 90% of all the freshwater which is economically accessible. The challenge is to produce more food and fibre with less water.
In sub-Saharan Africa, virtually all farmers practise rain-fed farming, but this is increasingly subject to unreliable and short rainy seasons, drought and other forms of climate change. Closing the gap between the growth rates of population and a reliable food supply through intensified production requires a two-pronged approach: intensified water harvesting and conservation, and intensified irrigation.
Low-cost methods exist for improved water harvesting: rehabilitation and protection of water catchments to reduce erosion, floods and silting; prevention of loss through evaporation and leakage; management of groundwater resources, and improved storage. Improved attention to conservation measures can also bring important savings.
Major savings can be achieved through more efficient irrigation, such as drip methods, and through changes in cropping patterns, using mixes of less water-intensive crops, shifting the cropping period into seasons where there is less evaporation, and improving the water-holding capacity of the soil.
Using treated waste-water in irrigation has great potential, especially in peri-urban agriculture, when water from industrial and domestic sources could be used. It also requires investment. According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, USA, this approach could provide the major long-term irrigation supply in those countries suffering from 'water stress'.
Overall water policies are slowly emerging at national and global levels, with increased activity during 1998: conferences hosted by the French government in March, and by UNESCO in June. World Water Day (March 22), organised in 1998 by the International Reference Centre on Community Water Supply, focused on groundwater. The United Nations designated the April 1998 session of its Commission on Sustainable Development to be devoted entirely to freshwater resources. On World Water Day 2000, the second World Water Forum met in The Hague, Netherlands, to present a 'Vision for Water, Life and The Environment' to Heads of States and other leaders.
The task of these policy fora is to work out realistic programmes that accept that, in many low-income countries with high water stress, water consumption per head will actually fall. At the same time, water prices are bound to rise. This increases the difficulties of small-scale farmers, says Jacques Diouf, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), since "other sectors, such as domestic demand and industrial supply, can generally afford to pay more".
It may be necessary, suggests IFPRI, to "help small irrigation farmers, particularly with partnerships that will give them access to capital, technology, know-how and markets". To compete at all, the farmer must first have access and control, and this requires ownership, control and capacity building. As long ago as 1993, in its annual State of Food and Agriculture report, FAO called for farmers to be assisted in obtaining ownership rights and management responsibilities for water supply systems: "Without such developments there will be less scope for farmers and consumers to benefit from existing agricultural technologies."
The choices are clear: if the cost of water is passed on to the consumer, then food prices will rise, with all that this means for food security. If farmers have to absorb the increased cost, then poorer farmers growing relatively low-value products will require support or could be forced out of business.
The market place turns into a battlefield?
The pricing of water will almost certainly lead to a new wave of structural adjustments. Within many countries, including at half the ACP States, the implementation of pricing policies will have to take account of the possible economic and social impact on the peri-urban and rural poor. It is recognised at national and global levels that many strongly water stressed countries will become less self-sufficient in food production. The idea is already being floated of one country abandoning agriculture.
There is a real danger that water scarcity will lead to local unrest, and even international conflict.
INTERNATIONAL FRESHWATER CONFLICT
A study published in August 1997 by Green Cross International-a world environmental group chaired by former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov points to at least 16 international freshwater conflicts, with seven rivers in Africa:
Chobe (Botswana, Namibia, Angola): 'tense'
Senegal (Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea) : 'tense'
Okavango (Botswana, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Namibia) : 'tense'
Komati (Swaziland, South Africa, Mozambique)
Nile (Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, DRC, Rwanda, Burundi)
Volta (Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Mali)
Saharian fossil aquifers (Libya, Egypt, Chad, Niger, Sudan) : 'open dispute'
Geographical and climatic conditions do not help the work of the water distribution agencies. The chronic lack of rainfall is compounded by the fact that most agriculture is irrigated, and there is not enough water for simple human consumption. In addition, distribution networks often have losses of up to 50% and are often decrepid, the result of old age, poor installation and bad water quality. Conflicts between farmers, electricity companies and drinking water suppliers are numerous, and lead to painful settlements in court.
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