Wednesday 21 December 2016
Monday 12 December 2016
IWRM – a model to be followed?
BLOG 9: IWRM – a model to be followed?
Integrated Water Resources
Management (IWRM) has garnered a lot of interest, and popularity, in recent
history. The Global Water Partnership define it as:
'A process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximise the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems'. (Mehta, 2015).
Clearly, with such an entity
endorsing its use, it has become subject and found involvement with a number of
water policy strategies in countries such as Nigeria and Chad. As mentioned in
my second blog, bhe global rise in population places a dire importance in water
resource management. Freshwater, being a finite resource, requires an active
approach to conservation and increase in efficiency.
Success can be seen in Nigeria’s
Komadugu-YobeRiver Basin, where the construction of dams and large-scale
irrigation previously led to conflict. IWRM ensured that a water charter was
put in place whereby farmers, fishermen and herders were all part of the plans
to restore the river flow.
Whilst many have championed it, this has been
met with debate placing it as a source of contention. IWRM, owing to the fact
it is a major reform, could take decades before acceptable adherence to its
principles is observed. In addition, it is important to recognise water as an
economic good and changing allocation of water resources can have an adverse
impact on different countries or groups that will need to reduce usage of
water. Developing countries pose an additional barrier in that the monitoring
of progress can be difficult to measure – especially so in cases where the
water sector is significantly more informal and built on a local infrastructure
thereby making national goals harder to achieve.
There is certainly an argument to
be made that people have become more concerned with the acronym itself and that
IWRM has swayed from the objectives it primarily set out to achieve.
Here are some of the contentions:
Masks neoliberalism:
·
This views the paradigm as regulating water not
for the sake of its conservation of equitable allocation, but to favour the
TNCs and neoliberal model of governance (Mehta, 2015).
·
Does not take a participatory approach and as
such allows elites to control its implementation – this is seen in the case of
Mozambique
Being too idealistic:
·
It is difficult to find a quick-fix solution,
and a solution that will please everybody.
·
Therefore its emphasis on including all players
is argued to be unrealistic
I certainly see where some of these
concerns are coming from, but I do believe that if the core principles that IWRM
set out with are adhered to, then equitable solutions and good management can
be had. These concerns largely come about due to a departure from these very
principles, therefore does not necessarily reflect IWRM itself – rather what people purportedly perceive IWRM to be.
References:
UNESCO (2016) http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0018/001818/181891E.pdf
Biswas, A.K.,
2004. Integrated Water Resources Management: A Reassessment. Water
International 29 (2), 248–256.
Mehta, L (2015)
Politics of Integrated Water Resources Management in southern Africa, (WWW)
Institute of Development Studies (ids.ac.uk; 12/11/16).
Van der Zaag,
P. 2005. Integrated Water Resources Management: Relevant concept or irrelevant
buzzword? A capacity building and research agenda for Southern
Africa, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 30, 867-871.
Saturday 3 December 2016
(Mis)representation of Water in Africa – justifying a means for an end?
BLOG 8: (Mis)representation of
Water in Africa – justifying a means for an end?
Having been
involved with a number of philanthropic charity initiatives myself, such as the
annual ‘Charity Week’ at UCL which raised over £131,000 last year (sorry for
the plug…), I have been not only exposed but also implicitly involved with publicity
and marketing strategies that use ‘shocking’ footage in a bid to strike a chord
in the audiences heart – all in the hope that it will motivate them to donate. That was quite a long sentence - so I’ll
gift you with a breather... and now back to work. Often I have found myself
at the tail-end of a number of heated discussions and debates, mainly
surrounding the overarching question of whether the use of such imagery is
conducive towards the greater good of fulfilling charity.
Here’s some
of the arguments that are presented:
Ramification number one: Purportedly paints Africa as being one
country
Ramification number two: suggests western powers are the only saviour
Ramification number three (in response to number 2): People in
Africa are both hapless and helpless.
Ramification number four: Desensitising people to the plight as it can
have the counter effect by ‘normalising’
Ramification number five: Disrespectful to the very subjects it seeks to represent.
Ramification number six: justifies the use of them
Ramification number seven: Commodifies their plight, as something to be
exploited
I’m not going to attempt to tackle these or debunk them as though they
are myths, for the simple reason that some of these arguments are mine (or at
least shared by me) and valid (the two aren’t dependant – I’m not that arrogant).
I argue that these tools such as poverty porn are not conducive towards
alleviating the situation in a sustainable way. Rather, they are both a subject
and product of a perpetuating distortion of truth – and the many ramifications
mentioned above. This is inherently political given the dynamics at play. Poverty porn paints a picture of misrepresentation –
portraying individual stories and cases as the problem, thereby undermining the
systems in place both causing and perpetuating poverty. The issues it portrays
are overwhelmingly visual such as lack of suitable clothing, denying attention
to other factors such as mental health and psychological suffering. Often, the
stereotypes portrayed are false leading to only extreme cases shown and lack of
focus on those who still require the help of charities but could be deemed ‘not
extreme enough’.I have come to realise that these methods seek to only offer a disservice
to the groups it seeks to represent, and by doing so, they are guilty of
perpetuating and giving justification to the very issues it seeks to avoid. It
is interesting that the passive recipient here is presented as the hapless and
needy subject compared to the active giver (here being the charities). This
fortifies the post-colonial discourse through exposing the power dynamics at
play here.
In a TED Talk watched nearly 5 million times,
author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie says:
“The consequence of the single story is this: it
robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity
difficult. It emphasises how we are different rather than how we are similar….
Stories
have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to
empower and humanise. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories
can also repair that broken dignity.”
The only counter one can really present, to explain (but not justify –
which is an important distinction to make) is that indeed, these charities as
reputable as they be, are in essence businesses. With recent scandals exposing
just how big the bonus pay packages can be, the humiliation this brought the
CEO’s, I’m sure, are not a pinch of salt compared to what the recipients may
feel.
References:
AquaAid
(2012) A continent of thirsty children. Available at:
http://aquaidwatercoolers.co.uk/a-continent-of-thirsty-children (Accessed: 23
December 2016).
Schaffer,
J. (2016) Poverty Porn - Do the means justify the ends? Available at:
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/06/10/poverty-porn-do-the-means-justify-the-ends/
(Accessed: 23 December 2016).
Water.
Org (2016) Water.Org Safe water & sanitation Charity. Available at:
http://www.water.org (Accessed: 23 December 2016).
WaterAid
(2015) Big Pipe Project. Available at:
http://www.bigpipeproject.wateraid.org (Accessed: 23 December 2016).
WhiteFuseMedia
(2016) https://whitefusemedia.com/blog/poverty-porn-should-fundraising-override-dignity
Websites (all accessed 20th
November 2016)
Thursday 24 November 2016
Groundwater in Africa – a blessing being cursed?
BLOG 7: Groundwater in Africa – a blessing being cursed?
Ah, groundwater! You may be
thinking that this blog entry is somewhat a departure from the pervading theme
of colonialism in my recent blogs, given that the interest in groundwater is a
seemingly new phenomenon - e.g.it took
until 2008 in Kampala for the first conference (Taylor et al., 2012). Well, you’d
be wrong. As we will find out, I argue that whilst groundwater indeed offers a
great potential in meeting domestic, agricultural and industrial water demands,
the potential for groundwater is being increasingly and inherently
hydro-compromised (I couldn’t help myself...) – because of hydro-colonialism
and the principles it continues to perpetuate.
Firstly, why the interest in
groundwater?
Well. There is no doubt it is a
vital source of freshwater and given that groundwater supplies can be
maintained during periods of little or no rainfall and help to even out
meteorological variability (MacDonald et al., 2011), it is particularly vital
in areas that rainfall and river discharge are otherwise ranked the most
variable on Earth – integral for Africa as we found out in my opening blog. As
such, its it provides a fantastic resilient option to meet increasing domestic demand,
access to safe water and enhancing food security e.g. through irrigation
(IGRAC, 2016), not to mention tackling the challenges of climate change
(Taylor, 2004) and population increase (WorldBank, 2016) – which are set to
impact Africa more than any other region in the World (Conway, 2011). It has
garnered a huge level of interest so much so that a body of international
scientists are coming together to explore its dynamics, through avenues such as
‘The Chronicles Consortium” where I believe a certain Richard Taylor is the
Co-Chair… (note: Richard is my professor who is assessing me on this blog...
hopefully he’ll appreciate the plug and consequently give me full marks).
Great, so what’s the issue?
Indeed, its merits are and have
been realised. For example, 80% of the domestic rural water supplies in
Sub-Saharan Africa derive from groundwater (Calow et al 2010).However,
acknowledging the true benefits of groundwater in response to climate
variability is still yet to be spread (Conway, 2011) – and where the benefits
are known, the infrastructure to extract it may not yet be in place.
Unfortunately, in some places, we are coming to see that those who are seeing
its benefits, and those who have/can bring the infrastructure, are those with
ulterior motives than hastening the development of Africa. This is already
beginning to be the case in Ethiopia, where Nestle have been found guilty of groundwater
extraction that has resulted in hundreds of people being relocated (Corporate
Watch, 2016).
There is also the example of The
Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) - one the world’s largest ‘fossil’
groundwater aquifer – covering two million square kilometres. Chad, Egypt, Libya and Sudan agree on
framework for joint management of this system, however, these players have
illustrated that
So what does this mean for
groundwater in Africa?
Unfortunately then, I strongly feel
that areas with an abundance of groundwater are likely to become more
susceptible to land grab in the near future. Whilst surface water continues to
be a focal point, companies like Nestle are beginning to notice the woes of
climate change and consequently begun shifting effort to the ‘goldmine’ of
groundwater that exists beneath ground.
Governments are allowing such companies to infiltrate and these examples
can be seen in blog 5. Hydro-colonial legacy continues to influence water
resource management and it comes back to our old friend that money > lives.
I believe this is why countries such as Ethiopia etc are favouring TNC
involvement.
Whilst groundwater brings with it
huge potential, it is a shame this potential is going to be constantly
undermined. In this vein then I argue
that groundwater does not provide a panacea for alleviating water stress, due to being constantly undermined by the
governance structures and politics that undermine its utility. It should
not be thought of independent to the politics and management that surround it.
My suggestion is that law and
regulation must seek to ensure the primary use of groundwater is for
subsistence through activity such as small-scale irrigation systems and managed
by local communities. Groundwater must become more than just a fashionable
statement. The water resource management
plans must ensure the rights of locals are not compromised, which means they
must not be simply resettled.
Even beyond and before all this though, it
would be nice to not pressure the people in African countries to be forced to
extract more of their rightful Groundwater sources than necessary, because of
the anthropogenic climate change that we are inducing – and that they are least
responsible for. So, yes, even we are becoming complicit in exacerbating the
dangers they face. You see, there really
is a domino effect to the purportedly innocuous things we do.
I have digressed in this blog and
at times answered the question on whether scarcity leads to conflict, rather
than groundwater being undermined by hydro-colonialism.
References:
https://corporatewatch.org/company-profiles/nestl%c3%a9-sa-corporate-crimes#water
Calow R C. et al.
2010 Ground Water 48, 246–56.
Taylor, R.G., Scanlon, B.R., Doell, P., Rodell, M.,
van Beek, L., Wada, Y., Longuevergne, L., LeBlanc, M., Famiglietti, J.S.,
Edmunds, M., Konikow, L., Green, T., Chen, J., Taniguchi, M., Bierkens, M.F.P.,
MacDonald, A., Fan Y., Maxwell, R., Yechieli, Y., Gurdak, J., Allen, D.,
Shamsudduha, M., Hiscock, K., Yeh, P., Holman, I. and Treidel, H., 2013. Groundwater and climate change. Nature
Climate Change, Vol. 3, 322-329.
Taylor, R.G., Todd, M., Kongola, L., Nahozya, E.,
Maurice, L., Sanga, H. and MacDonald, A., 2013. Evidence of the dependence of groundwater
resources on extreme rainfall in East Africa. Nature Climate Change,
Vol. 3, 374-378.
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