Water, Africa and Politics

Following my COP27 post, I would like to take a look at the water security within Africa and how global climate change, urbanisation and privatisation affects it and the governments decisions on water management to provide sustainable water access for the citizens of African states.  In 2021, The State of the Climate in Africa report put particular focus on water. It revealed that already 250 million people are affected by high water stress and by 2030 more than 700 million would suffer in water security. Security risks due to climate related changes heighten social, economic, and political challenges across the world, and with water being the most precious natural resource, without which no living creature can survive, it could lead to water conflicts and geopolitical tensions (such as the Nile Basin tensions). Many regions in Africa are particularly vulnerable to those changes, such as Horn of Africa , which suffers from extreme droughts, and Central Africa , with extreme weather c

  The COP27, which took place in Egypt, was the first climate conference since 2016 to be held in Africa, hosting almost 200 countries. The Egypt’s presidency of the COP27 focused on moving from negotiation of changes to combat climate change to implementation of them into the countries. The main goals were concentrated on the 4 main themes: Mitigation - to maintain 1.5 degree target and limit global warming below 2 degrees by implementing the Glasgow pact, Adaptation – to place global action on adaptation on the forefront following the 2015 Paris Agreement and the Glasgow pact, Finance – to provide transparency in the flow of finance to accommodate developing countries (particularly in Africa) and mobilise funds for achieving the Paris Agreement goals, and Collaboration – to ensure cooperation between governments, the private sector and civil society. (COP27 2022 Egypt) This year, COP for the first time included water on the official agenda . As climate change affects the water cycle

Despite having a massive water source, Ethiopia suffered from underdevelopment and lack of electricity. Due to urbanisation and expansion of urban areas, the demand for clean water has significantly increased and therefore, countries like Ethiopia, explore different options for developing new water infrastructures to utilise the water available to them at the Nile basin. Therefore, the construction plans for Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) were proposed back in the 1960s , however, due to economic and political reasons the build was postponed. However, in 2020 the dam has been completed and started generating 375 megawatts , delivering it to the grid. Thus, the country relies heavily on GERD to provide energy and enhance its economy.  Egypt, as a downstream country, considers itself vulnerable and fears disruptions to its access to the Nile’s water resource, as they believe GERD would have a profound negative impact on the country. Egypt has used its colonial era agreements to