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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