Hydropolitics and Geopolitics in Africa:

Impact of Water on Communities,

Food Security, Transnational Relationships, and Development

                       April 22-23, 2004

 

Current thinking projects that the main conflicts in Africa during the next 25 years are likely to be over water, as population pressures increase competition over water resources. Potential “water wars” are likely in areas where rivers and lakes are shared by more than one country. 1,386,000 km³ of water is available on earth.  Only 2.5% of that volume is fresh water. Less than 1% of the fresh water is usable in a renewable fashion.  Access to water affects agricultural productivity, food security and people’s livelihoods. Effective water management thus needs to be multi-objective, and has to deal with competing priorities and often conflicting interests over a range of interlocking challenges from satisfying needs for drinking water, water for irrigation schemes, balancing urban and rural uses, reconciling interests of riparian states over trans boundary rivers, electricity generation; crop production, fisheries, maintaining a sound environment, affording an environmentally sustainable development, preserving natural beauty to encouraging tourism and protecting cultural and social aspects of communities.

Balancing all of the above interests is especially challenging because of the trans-boundary nature of rivers and lakes.  There are 263 watersheds shared by two or more countries in the world.  These trans-boundary basins cover 45.3% of the earth. Together they house about 40% of the world population and represent 60% of the global river flow.  Some 85% of Africa’s water resources are comprised of large river basins shared between several countries. In Africa there are well over 70 international rivers. For example, the Nile is shared by 10 countries, the Volta by 6, the Niger by 11, Lake Chad by 8, the Congo by 9 and the Zambezi by 9.  This is compounded by the fact that the amount of available water is diminishing.  The flow of the Nile has decreased from 84 km³ in 1954 to 52 km³ in 2004; Lake Chad from 25,000 km² in 1960 to 2,000 km² in 2004.  High rates of population growth accompanied by continued increases in the demand for water have resulted in several countries passing the point where the scarcity of water supplies effectively limits further economic development.

Present population trends and patterns of water use suggest that more African countries will exceed the limits of their economically usable water-based resources before 2025.  A related matter is that Africa’s water supply systems lag behind those of the rest of the world, in both extent and quality.  This presents a major obstacle to economic growth and can have severe negative consequences for the living standards of the population. Water also has major impact on health.  In some countries the response has been to privatize water distribution systems.  Establishing private sector participation in Africa’s water supply offers enormous promise but also huge challenges.  For example one of the major issues that have arisen is how to make sure that tariffs adopted by the water companies are affordable to the ordinary people.  A related matter is how to ensure that the private sector does not ignore the poor in urban centers and the rural areas as the profit motive predominates in its operations and decision-making on the viability of projects.

It is hoped that the Symposium will bring together an interdisciplinary group of experts in the management of water resources, economists, political scientists and other disciplines to discuss the issues raised above.   It is hoped that through an exchange of views and experiences, the symposium will determine the major challenges posed by the increasing scarcity of water resources and recommend possible solutions and practices for the management of this scarce resource and thereby defuse the possibility of conflict.

 

 

It is proposed to organize the symposium along the following themes:

 

·         -Transnational Conflict and/or Cooperation in Managing Water Resources

·         -Water Management, Politics and Governance

·         -People, Water and Technology at the Local Level

·         -Power Dams and Environment

·         -Water Privatization

·         -Water and Public Health.

The Symposium is organized by the Institute for African Development (IAD) at Cornell University. Those who wish to participate in the Symposium are invited to submit abstracts of no more than 2-3 pages or completed papers.

The submission deadline for the abstracts is February 15, 2005.   Proceedings of the Symposium will be published.  Submissions should be sent electronically to: CIAD@Cornell.edu   Inquiries concerning the Symposium should be directed to:

 

Jackie Sayegh, Program Coordinator,

Institute for African Development, Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies,

170 Uris Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.

Tel (607) 255-6849 / 5499

 

The symposium is co-sponsored by the Africa Faith and Justice Network and the Institute for African Development of Cornell University. For more information, please contact Marcel Kitissou at (202)832-3412, kitissou@afjn.org or Jackie Sayegh at (607) 255-5499 or jsb25@cornell.edu