Water, Politics and Development in Africa

Inauguration of the Taredji-Podor Road Today I would like to talk about a subject that is different from previous blogs, since I would like to talk about the role that water plays in cultural and political relations between communities. Indeed, we have seen throughout this blog the different international and national political relationships around water in Africa. We have addressed the theme of conflict, cooperation and the political issues it raises in a nation. This article will therefore focus on the relationship between water and the development of a cultural and political way of life and the relationships it induces in Africa.   For this, I will rely on the case of two communities, Toucouleurs and Peuls, in the region of Fuuta-Tooro in Senegal where water is a factor of social differentiation.  Location :   The Fuuta-Tooro region lies on the border between Mauritania and Senegal. It is located on the north of the Senegal River Valley and is 600 km from D...

 2021 Circle of Blue – Most of this blog focuses on international political relations around water between different African countries and different parts of the world with Africa. I would like here to look at a more local scale : the nation. So I’m gonna see how water is linked to a country’s government by looking at South Africa’s meters of prepaid water to see the relationship between water, democracy, and the forms of government.  Access to water is culturally important in most societies where government should provide the minimum amount required to survive ( Muller, 2007 ). Besides, how water is managed is ‘an important indicator of success’. As the article says : « water is both the subject of and a metaphor for political discourse ».  In 1994, after independence, 1/3 of South Africans did not have access to safe and practical water, which put water immediately on the agenda of the new democratic government. This is how a national programme was launched b...

  In this post, I would like to analyze and question the relevance of aid and   cooperation and their effectiveness. Cause if several organizations exist (UNWC, IWRM, Water Act), we still have to question their effectiveness and relevance at the scale of the African continent and the world. I would also like to address the problem of an European and international vision and presence in the management of conflicts around water in Africa. Indeed, since the majority of African countries are former colonies, it is interesting to wonder what role the old metropolises still play and what hypocrisy lies behind a desire to develop Africa. • What success for the IWRM ?  IWRM is the dominant organisation in water resource management in the world. It was promoted by multilateral and regional development banks and donor agencies and knew a rapid spread in southern Africa over the past two decades.  IRWM is known for having contributed to decentralisation which has led to ...

Last week, I analyzed the causes of conflicts around water, the different factors of tensions and their multiple scales. Today, as you can see with this introductory video I would like to look at COP26 and study the different scales of cooperation and their relevance. As Elizabeth Wathuti says (a Kenyan environmentalist who founded the Green Generation movement to raise awareness of environmental issues with a project that resulted in the planting of 30,000 trees), there is a real urgent need to act and understand the environmental issues in Africa. The purpose of COP26, as you know, is to bring together leaders from several states to discuss environmental issues. But the question is : is an international scale relevant to understand the real issues? Despite Elisabeth’s truthful speach, her sentence often repeated echoes previous UN meetings with no real consequences : ‘open your heart and act’. Hence the question: can we understand the international climate consequences? What gove...

  A woman walks past soldiers outside Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Image Hi everyone !!     Last week, I used the case of the Nile Basin to analyze the different issues of water sharing in Africa.  We’ve seen several related notions in order to understand the legitimacy of Ethiopia to impose a dam that could have negative consequences on downstream countries. Today I would like to see in more detail the real conflicts around water that can degenerate into ‘water wars’. Therefore, we will ask the following questions: Can water become a weapon ? What forms can water-related conflicts take in Africa? What are the causes of water wars in Africa ?   Water usage conflicts :   The development of the population, industry and agriculture in Africa increases water needs and therefore the pressure between countries ( Hayton, 1961 ) as the majority of water sources are shared by several countries and water treati...