|
Paper
presented at the Pan-African Implementation and Partnership Conference
on Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Prepared
by, Seth Doe Vordzorgbe Contents 2. Managing risks within the context of Agenda 21 3 3. Trends and development since Rio 4 3.2 Natural disaster management 6 3.2.1 Flood management 10 3.2.2 Drought management 10 3.3 Water pollution prevention and control 12 3.4 Evolution of a broader concept of water risk 14 3.4.2 Expanding concept of water risk 14 3.4.3 Socio-political risks 15 3.4.4 Corruption risks 16
Water is an integral part of the ecosystem, a finite natural resource and a social and economic good. Hence, issues of water availability, access and quality are of fundamental importance to development, poverty reduction and ecosystem sustainability. The 2003 Pan-African Implementation and Partnership Conference on Water, taking place in the International Year of Freshwater, would undoubtedly highlight this vital link. Africa is home to about 13% of the world's population, but has only about 9% of the world's water resources (UNEP 2002) while average annual per capita availability of water resources in Africa is lower than the world average and higher than only that of Asia, as seen from Table 1. Table
1
*As at 2001 **As at 2001 ***As at 2000 Source: United Nations 2001 This low level of water availability in Africa is due to three basic sources of water risks. The first major concern is that of a significant decline in the average rainfall since the late 1960s: in recent times, most of the continent has experienced increased aridity as mean annual rainfall has reduce by 5% to 10% between 1931-1960 and 1968 - 1997. The decline in Sahelian rainfall has been the largest sustained decline recorded anywhere in the world since instrumental measurements began while deviations from the trend have been larger than in other dryland areas of the world. The second basic concern with the water resource situation of Africa is that in terms of comparative hydrology, runoff is low in Africa due to high evaporative losses. Total runoff as a percentage of precipitation is the lowest in the world at about 20%, compared to 35% for south America and about 40% for Asia, Europe and north America. The third major source of water risk in Africa is the high variability of supply, due to highly variable rainfall. For example, precipitation ranges from almost zero over some desert areas in Namibia and parts of the Horn to very high levels in the western equatorial areas. The major outcome of these extremes of rainfall, is a high frequency of floods and drought on the continent. The high variability of rainfall and river flow also reduces runoff and exacerbates vulnerability to erosion and desertification. This extreme variability of climate and hydrological conditions imposes high costs on livelihoods, and raises the riskiness of development interventions. Meanwhile, the quality of the available water is declining and the management of the water resources is weak, due to several factors including weak institutional base, inadequate financial resources, lack of user involvement and weak regulatory frameworks. Defects and adverse effects of all the above basic factors result in the major water resource management gaps in Africa: limited storage, degraded watershed, inefficient utilization and deteriorated quality (Grey 2002). The inefficient use of water resources in Africa is very worrisome. Africa withdraws only about 3 percent of its annual river flow, although the rates are a bit higher in northern Africa. Consequently, only about 4 percent of the nearly 4,000 billion m3 of renewable water available annually is used in Africa, resulting in massive underutilization and inefficient use. Due to inadequate water storage, processing and distribution systems, in 2000, about 36% of the population did not have access to potable water, but the deprivation is higher in rural areas where as much as 50% lacked access to safe water. Because of low investment in water supply and distribution infrastructure, increasing demand and weak water management policies, access to water is highly skewed in favour of urban consumers and some agricultural and industrial users. Africa's Water Vision is for water to be an instrument of poverty alleviation and economic recovery by ensuring adequate and equitable access to safe water and sanitation, sufficient water for food and energy security and adequate quantity and quality of water for sustaining ecosystems and biodiversity (UNEP 2002). Achieving this vision possess major challenges. Already fourteen countries in Africa are experiencing water scarcity. Some countries, such as South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Libya and Mauritius already supplement their water supplies with desalinated water. The future is not salutary: water stress will increase in Africa due to the influence of climate factors (increasing frequency of flood and drought and water system stress) and anthropogenic causes of increasing use (from rising population, expanding urbanization, increasing economic development, unplanned settlement patterns), inadequate storage and recycling, lack of knowledge to address concerns and weak governance of water sector. Africa has the highest population growth rate and the fastest rate of increase in urban population in the world. This has implications for demand, quality and sustainability of water resources. Consequently, access to adequate freshwater resources in Africa is projected to worsen considerably in the future: 25 countries are projected to experience either water scarcity or stress by 2002. Most of these countries are shown in Table 2. Table 2 Examples of countries to experience water stress or scarcity by 2025
Source: UNEP 2002 The basic challenge is providing increased water supply to meet the various end use needs, mainly through increasing the capability to harness the flow and stock of available water resources, while improving the quality and the efficiency of utilization of water resources. Underground resources are vast, but they are already providing most of the human needs in settlements. The key is to enhance uptake from the continent's river systems. Africa presently withdraws only 3% of total river runoff but needs only 0.5 to 1% of the stable runoff from its rivers to adequately supply the total population. This involves meeting the investment cost of developing the requisite reservoirs, extraction, processing, distribution and management infrastructure, systems and institutional framework. Thus, the main task for water policy and management is how to meet individual, livelihood activity, settlement and ecosystem needs at local, national and regional levels in a sustainable manner that is in conformity with requisite technical, hydrological, environmental, economic, social and legal conditions. 2. Managing risks within the context of Agenda 21 The Programme of Action for Sustainable Development of Agenda 21 contains the rationale and priority interventions for sustainable development and utilization of water resources. The four main areas of water risk management in Agenda 21 relate to: (a) integrated resource development, (b) resource assessment, (d) water resource accessibility for human health, livelihood and other activities, as well as ecosystem well-being, (e) climate change. This report will cover all these areas. The application of integrated approaches to the development, management and use of water resources set out in Chapter 18 of Agenda 21 establishes the parameters and bounds of water risk assessment and management. This integrated approach to the handling of water resource issues, in turn, engenders the need for a comprehensive approach to managing water risks. This integrated risk management approach involves dealing with risks arising from several sources, including the following:
3.1 National countermeasures to climate change Given the interlinked relationship between climate and water resources, changes in global and regional climate, particularly those resulting in disasters, have profound implications for water resource and socio-economic development. Meeting the challenges of Africa's water resource risks is made more difficult by the impact of climate change, particularly variability, on factors affecting water resource development, such as population pressure, watershed degradation and land use problems. Forecasts of climate change are debatable but the evidence that climate variation is getting more and more extreme is irrefutable: the climate of Africa is exhibiting the characteristics of climate change observed globally. Records show that the continent is warmer than it was 100 years ago and that its climate has experienced wetter and drier periods during the past two centuries than before (IPCC 1998). Climate change scenarios indicate that wetting will increase in east Africa and drying increase in southeast Africa; but overall, the trend is towards reduced precipitation in current arid areas. Overall, the impacts of climate change in Africa are likely to encompass the following (AfDB et. al. 2002):
Countermeasures, comprising mitigation and adaptation interventions being undertaken in Africa, classified on the basis of categories presented in Dialogue on Water and Climate (2003), include the following: ¬ Policy instruments
¬Technological, structural and non-structural measures
¬ Risk sharing and spreading
¬ Change of use, activity or location
¬ Knowledge, skills and participation
Most of the mitigation interventions implemented are economically unsustainable and have largely been ineffective in addressing adverse effects of climate variability on water in Africa. Given the relatively undeveloped state of Africa, climate change will worsen Africa's vulnerability to ecosystem hazards, quite apart from exacerbating the effects of the hazards. Hence, due to the weak economic situation of Africa, we cannot afford to invest significantly in classical mitigation interventions: the key to reducing disaster risks from climate change is to focus on developing adaptive management systems and initiatives (Vordzorgbe 2002). Thus, to meet the challenges of today's climate variability and tomorrow's climate change for water sector development in Africa, it is imperative that adaptive management and risk management processes are integrated into the sustainable development strategies of African countries. Essential factors to be addressed in operationalizing adaptive risk management in Africa include the following (Vordzorgbe 2002):
3.2 Natural disaster management A disaster is a severe disruption to the normal state and functioning of a community caused by extensive human, socio-economic and ecological damage that the affected community or society cannot cope with on its own. Africa is the second most affected continent in terms of natural disasters and was home to about 33% of all natural disasters in the world, 16% of disaster-caused deaths and 5% of all persons totally affected by natural disasters in the year 2002. Considering the three major natural disaster categories, hydrometeorological disasters dominate the natural disaster landscape in Africa, accounting for 57% of disasters occurrences during 1975 - 2002 in Africa, as seen from Table 3. Table 3, Occurrence of disasters by type in Africa: 1975 - 2002
Source: Vordzorgbe 2003 B Natural disaster management is nearly synonymous with water resource risk management because issues of livelihood and human security risks, including ecosystem safety, are intrinsically linked to water concerns. Consequently, interventions to reduce the risks of disasters from water-related causes often involve far more than water issues per se for several reasons. First, the majority of disasters caused by natural hazards are due to hydrometeorological factors: the majority of all natural disasters worldwide are due to climate-related causes of which hydrometeorological factors predominate. For example, flood and windstorm alone accounted for 69 percent of all global natural catastrophic loss events during 2002 (Munich Re 2003). This situation is no different in Africa. Second, other natural hazards, such as geological and biological events, have impacts on water resources. Third, given the multi-interest use of water, risks in any of the factors of water use translate into water-related risks. Fourth, problems with water resource access and distribution contribute to the development of political conflicts. Fifth, addressing issues of water risk involves interventions in several areas of development management, ranging from environmental management, financial measures, development and planning control and land use to changing attitudes and behaviour patterns. Disaster risk management is the process of problem definition, research, analysis, decision making, implementation and monitoring of actions to reduce risk from disasters to elements at risk. It is aimed at implementing scientifically sound, cost effective and integrated actions that reduce or prevent risks arising from disasters while taking into account relevant socio-economic, political, cultural and other considerations. Recently, as the development community has become aware of the need to reduce the source of disaster risks, instead of continuing to focus on addressing the outcome of disasters, the practice of disaster management has evolved from post disaster response to the current focus on disaster risk reduction. In contrast to traditional emergency management, the new concept of disaster risk reduction focuses on vulnerability and risk considerations, not hazard events, addresses multiple risks and vulnerability factors, adopts the participatory and iterative approaches and proactively manages emerging risks and vulnerabilities (Vordzorgbe 2003). The experience with the extent of integrating disaster reduction in national development is mixed in Africa. There exists some national capabilities for disaster management in the sub-region but the degrees of effectiveness vary and almost all are largely oriented towards response, with little focus on prevention. At the policy level, only a few countries directly link disaster reduction to their overarching national development strategies. This largely accounts for several of the defects of disaster management practice on the continent, including inadequate funding, weak capabilities to generate, analyze and disseminate information on disasters and their management, low public awareness about disaster factors and their reduction mechanisms, partly dues to the lack of instruction in disaster risk management in the education and training systems within the region (Vordzorgbe 2003 B, 2002 B). One major drawback is the relative lack of research and analysis on risk behaviour in Africa and developing countries in general, including risk strategies such as crop insurance and alternative risk management public policies (Vordzorgbe 1987). To address these defects, a generic mechanism framework for reducing disaster risks is proposed in Box 1. Box 1: Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction Policies and Programmes
Source: Vordzorgbe 2003 Much of Africa is vulnerable to flooding: flood is the most prevalent disaster in North Africa, the second most common in east, south and central Africa, and the third most common in west Africa. Episodes of flood accounted for 26% of total disaster occurrences in Africa during 1971 to 2001 (Vordzorgbe 2003 B) with devastating effects. In northern Africa, the 2001 disastrous flood in northern Algeria resulted in about 800 deaths and economic loss of about $400 million. In east Africa, the El Nino-related flood in 1997/98 destroyed infrastructure and property worth about $1.8 billion in Kenya. In Mozambique, the 2000 flood, (worsened by two cyclones) reduced the annual economic growth rate from 10% to 4%, caused 800 deaths, affected almost 2 million people of which about 1 million needed food, displaced 329,000 people and destroyed agricultural production land, among other negative effects. The single worst episodes of flood in Africa killed 2,311 people in Somalia in 1997 and affected 1,8 million people in Sudan in 1999. Structural and non-structural measures for managing the direct effects of floods include:
Drought is the resultant outcome of the interrelationships among varied complex natural and anthropogenic factors that are yet to be fully understood. It is the third most common disaster by occurrence in Africa, accounting for 31% of all natural disaster events in Africa during 1975 - 2002 (Vordzorgbe 2003 B). Droughts differ from other natural hazards because they are slow-onset phenomena, their occurrence and effects cover wide spatial areas, and their impacts are largely environmental and human but non-structural. Droughts exert environmental, economic and social impacts that retard sustainable development in Africa. They aggravate environmental degradation through ecosystem and climatic effects, including phenomena such as deforestation, livestock overgrazing, soil erosion, wildland fires, biodiversity loss and water pollution. Social effects include reduced potable water supplies with negative health and sanitation consequences, especially for the vulnerable groups, and increased drudgery by women in collecting water for household consumption. Droughts also impact environmental disease incidence and increase the likelihood of food shortages leading to malnutrition and hunger. The single worst drought disaster killed 300,000 people in Ethiopia in 1984 and affected 14.3 million people in 2002 in the same country. In economic terms, the cost of droughts in Africa is enormous. For example, the economic impacts of the 1991/92 drought in Southern Africa included GDP reduction of $3 billion, reduced agricultural production, increased unemployment, heavy government expenditure burden and reduced industrial production due to curtailed power supply (Clay et. al. 2003, Vordzorgbe 1992). A decade later, the 1992-2001 La Nina-related drought in Eastern Africa cost the Kenya economy alone about $2.5 billion. The type of drought determines its effects and the appropriate response. Meteorological drought, extended deficiency of normal precipitation, often precedes agricultural drought, which is signified by deficiency of water availability for plant growth and is mainly due to deficiency in soil moisture. Hydrological, or water supply drought, is due to deficiencies in the normal flow and off-take from water resource sources and presents the strongest challenges, among all three types, in terms of mitigation. All types of drought interact with climate variability, management practices and physical factors to cause land degradation that, unchecked, results in desertification. Meteorological drought can often be addressed by adjusting or postponing water use through effective water supply and demand management. Mitigating agricultural drought requires more efficient soil moisture availability and utilization while addressing hydrological drought often calls for structural and management measures to protect surface water sources. It should be noted that shortage of underground water supply often exerts greater pressure on settlement populations dependent on that source than deficiencies in precipitation, but is not conventionally considered in defining drought. In general, addressing the problem of drought involves actions in the following areas:
A major problem with mitigating effects of droughts through conventional water transfer schemes is that most of the drought-prone areas of Africa are water-deficit so that it is not feasible to ameliorate water stress in drought areas through transfers from large river basins to address meteorological drought. Also, several rivers are not drought reliable as they shrink during drought periods and do not offer alternate source of water to surrounding lands during stress periods of hydrological drought. Partly due to the difficulties in drought mitigation, worldwide, the status of combating drought is not encouraging: even developed countries have only recently designed and began implementing drought management plans. For example, in the USA, Congress passed the National Drought Policy Act in 1998, the Australian National Drought Policy was formulated in 1992 while China established its first integrated operational drought monitoring system during 1996-2000 (Vordzorgbe 2003 B). In Africa, nearly all countries have prepared national drought mitigation action plans, while ECOWAS and IGAD have prepared sub-regional plans, under the ambit of the UNCCD. 3.3 Water pollution prevention and control Meeting the varied demands on water systems is not feasible without adequate attention to the protection of water quality and preservation of ecosystems and biodiversity. In this respect, the declining trend of water quality in Africa is a worrisome development with implications for its availability, use and access. In general, the following chemical, physical and microbial factors affect water quality: organic pollutants, nutrients, heavy metal, microbial contamination, toxic organic compounds, salinization, acidification, suspended particles, and, temperature. Algae eutrophication is polluting several waterbodies in Africa due to increased nutrient levels from poor agricultural practices and discharge of untreated wastes. Groundwater resources are also getting polluted from three main causes: (a) leaching of pollutants from agriculture, industry and untreated sewage, (b) salinization through saltwater intrusion and irrigation water seepage, and (c) natural hydrogeochemical pollution. There are very little studies on groundwater quality in Africa and currently there is no comprehensive programme of groundwater quality monitoring on the continent. Industrial pollution, effluent discharge and other forms of pollution, are contaminating freshwater lakes, wetlands and dams leading to various forms of waterbody degradation, including quality reduction and biodiversity loss. These seriously impair the ability of freshwater systems to filter and purify water. Changes in lake water condition, as a measure of lake water quality from the 1960s to the 1990s, show that conditions in 40% of the lakes in Africa have worsened while 5% improved (UNESCO and Bergham Books 2003). African countries have undertaken a diverse range of measures to prevent and control water quality, including:
Water quality issues depend on the context: the definition of water quality is not objective but is socially determined, depending on the use of the water. Hence, the establishment, monitoring and enforcement of compliance with standards for water quality, abstraction and watershed use are crucial in preventing and controlling water pollution. Assuring compliance with planning and regulatory provisions often entails the twin approach of using incentives and deterrents. The former includes economic incentives, such as pollution charging, based on the polluter pays principle, and discharge permits, but their effect is not much felt in Africa, largely due to deficiencies in information. To improve results, the approach to achieving compliance should strike an appropriate balance between enforcing compliance with regulations and adopting participation-oriented approaches based on self consent. Nonetheless, a key lesson is that key institutional factors may be in place for consultation and cooperative approaches to help ensure successful water quality management, but regulatory bodies must continue to enforce regulations (World Bank 2003). Monitoring of water quality is key to meeting challenges of pollution. Conventionally, most water quality monitoring is undertaken at the point sources of pollution but these methods do not adequately detect non-point sources of pollution. Emerging approaches to water quality improvement that are relevant in the African situation include the river basin approach to water quality monitoring, involving assessment based on integrated indicators of watershed condition and vulnerability, as embodied in the Index of Watershed Indicators of the Environmental Protection Agency of the USA, and the integration of biological and chemical indicators. The river basin approach requires a high degree of governmental and intergovernmental coordination but, in future, biological methods of water quality monitoring will assume greater importance as the need for more complete information about overall ecosystem health and integrity grows. In this respect, comprehensive and cumulative water risk assessment will assume growing importance in water policy. 3.4 Evolution of a broader concept of water risk
There are several definitions of risk found in the literature (for example, see Vordzorgbe 2003 for a variety of definitions) depending on the context and circumstances under which it is considered. Conventionally, risk, as it relates to disasters, can be defined as the "probability of harmful consequences, or expected loss (of lives, people injured, property, livelihoods, economic activity disrupted or environment damaged) resulting from interactions between natural or human induced hazards and vulnerable/capable conditions" (UNISDR 2002). In plain language, a societal element (humans, communities, activities, services and livelihood outcomes, environment or physical structure) is at `risk' or `vulnerable' when it is exposed to anticipated or occurring disaster hazards that are likely to adversely impact it. Generally, risk is estimated by the mathematical expectation of the consequences of an adverse event or process (such as the product of the probability of occurrence and the consequences), or as a function of the scenario, probability of occurrence and the outcomes. Thus, risk depends on the probability of loss or damage as well as on consequences, even if the probability is low, and is defined computationally as a function of the probability of occurrence of particular effects and the losses that each would cause. Within the context of water risks, the concept of risk has evolved in recent times to incorporate aspects discussed below. Given the central role of water in societal and ecosystem wellbeing, water risks translates directly into human security, including livelihood, risks. This broader notion of risk is derived from a broadening of the concept of water in development itself based on the conceptualization of water as an integral part of the ecosystem, a finite natural resource and a social and economic good. Consequently, issues of water risk concern the quality, supply and distribution, efficiency, sustainability and affordability of the resource. Satisfying optimum conditions of these factors entails trade-offs among the various factors, thereby creating a source of risk to be considered in water resource management. In recognition of the multi sectoral dimension of water resource development and the multi-interest use of water, water risks are considered multi-dimensional and can be caused by multiple hazards. Hence, methods and mechanisms for addressing water risks need to comprehensive; rarely is one method sufficient for meeting water risks. There is now greater recognition that risk is a function of hazards and vulnerability and a growing realization of the key role of vulnerability in risk. Most risk situations are not due to hazard events per se, but are determined by the resilience and adaptation capability of the affected. How a community or society handles risk from natural, environmental and technological hazards and socio-economic, physical and environmental vulnerabilities through its resilience potential, capacity, capability and competency determines whether a disaster ensues or not. A significant advance has been the growing awareness that the overall judgement of the loss from disaster risks needs to be based on both objective risk determination and subjective risk perception. This integrative orientation reflects the importance of subjective perceptions of risk in determining risk valuation by affected communities and all stakeholders and points to the need for a participatory approach to disaster risk assessment and management. Following from the above is the emerging recognition that the level of risk the society or an individual is willing to live with determines the risk response behaviour of groups and individuals at risk. A part of the conventional notion of risk that is less well recognized is that certain qualitative aspects of risk influence how risk is perceived by disaster affected communities and shape the outcomes of stakeholder response to risk mitigation interventions. These non-qualitative attributes of risk include: certainty, voluntarity, familiarity, preventability, reversibility, and dreadfulness. Another dimension of the broader concept of risk is that uncertainty of decision making to address water risks is increasing, particularly regarding issues associated with effects of climate variability and change and the worsening vulnerability of most societies in Africa. Consequently, the previous goal of developing `fail-safe' water systems is giving way to the more realistic objective of `safe fail' (UNESCO 2003). The emerging concept of risk also recognizes that any comprehensive notion of risk has to incorporate economic and socio-political, including corruption, aspects. All these aspects of water risks are related. The link between economic risks and water risks is a two-way relationship. Some economic risks emanate from water risk. For example, variability of water supply for agriculture, power generation and industrial production causes livelihood, transaction and macroeconomic losses and risks to individuals and societies. Also, poor quality water has negative health effects with economic implications. In addition, the destructive effects of water-related natural disasters pose direct and indirect risks to national and individual economies. Often water resources cause economic risks due to market failure, when markets no longer reflect the social value of water, and to policy failure and poor governance, when actions of governments encourage destructive use of water resources. In turn, some economic factors, influence the type, occurrence and impact of some water risks. For example, lack of financial resources for investment in potable water development leads to deterioration of water quality and higher health risks. Addressing water risks on economic grounds involves adopting market and non-market approaches in the development, use and protection of water resources. These include: (a) open investment policies, (b) rationalization of subsidies, (c) improved governance, including clarification and enforcement of rights, (d) targeted environmental policies, regulation and economic incentives, and (e) improvement of public investments and services. Socio-political risks are significant in the water sector. The political economy of society determines the incidence and resolution of risks; addressing risks involves tradeoffs and transfers that take place as part of political economic processes. This is because governments face many pressures in balancing all interests in sound water policy. Often, political sustainability, the prime goal of most decision makers, is at variance with efficiency and equity considerations in water risk decision making situations, particularly when the decision involves expenditure of public funds. This leads to avoidance of painful long-term interventions in favour of short-term populist measures in addressing water risks. The socio-political costs of water risks include: (a) non-participation of stakeholders, (b) weak governance, (c) disruption to or diminution of social capital, including disruption of community relations and breakdown of mutual support groups, and (d) political conflicts. A major feature of the water resource endowment of Africa is that at least 54 rivers or water bodies constitute or cross national boundaries with the result that all countries in continental sub-Saharan Africa share one or more river basins. About 63 percent of the total land area of Africa lies within transboundary river basins. This, in conjunction with other predisposing factors, such as competing demands for shared natural resources and rising population pressures, raises the potential for risks and rewards from riparian conflicts and cooperation. For example, due to imprecise demarcations of national borders formed by water bodies in Africa, Botswana and Namibia had a military confrontation over national boundaries in the Kovango river. Water risks carry other social costs. Since access to water resources is important in determining societal and community power relations, lack of water causes under-development which reduces social status and worsens social conditions. Therefore, water risks translate to threats to human security. Corruption risks are a special rent-seeking class of socio-political risks that take many forms. These corruption risks divert resources from water services and resource development, discourage compliance with regulation, encourage waste and inefficiency, and, ultimately, make water resources unsustainable. Corruption risk in water development occurred because water has been largely treated as a public good with low externalities, particularly during the era when water was perceived to be abundant and the answer was believed to be merely one of increasing the supply. Consequently, oversight has been less than desirable, thereby creating opportunities for corrupt use of public water resources. Corruption is likely to arise from other causes, including: competition over access to and control of water resources; undervaluing of resources; weak management of water distribution systems, resulting in non-payment for water services, illegal connections and the like; non-enforcement of compliance with statutory and regulatory stipulations; inadequate incentives for efficiency gains; social deviancy, Addressing water risk on the basis of socio-political considerations involves measures such as: (a) making public institutions more responsive, (b) applying mechanisms such as alternative dispute resolution, (c) improving knowledge and understanding, (d) adopting participatory management approaches that involve local communities, (e) integrating beneficial traditional and local practices and wisdom, (f) providing safety nets for the vulnerable and most disadvantaged, (g) adopting fair, equitable, transparent and accountable water sector governance practices, (h) enforcing compliance with laws, regulations and standards. The following aspects of water resources affect the health status of most African societies:
Water supply, sanitation and hygiene form the trilogy in water-related health issues which affect the quality of life. In turn, the quality of life depends on the status and quality of the water resource sector. In 2000, about 36% of the population in Africa did not have access to a safe water supply while about 40% did not have access to sanitary facilities, as seen from Table 4. Table 4 Access to water supply and sanitation services in some regions of the world
Source: UNESCO and Bergham Books 2003 Rural-urban disparities are wide, as shown in Table 5. Table 5, Urban-rural disparities in access to potable water and sanitary facilities
Source: UNESCO and Bergham Books 2003 Degradation of the environment from pressures in the form of pollution, resource depletion and other causes lead to adverse human exposures and, consequently, health effects. As a result, environmental health burden is a significant proportion of the total disease burden: a significant proportion of reported diseases are due to poor environmental sanitation. Diarrhoeal death from contaminated water use in Africa is the highest in the world, partly due to pollution of water sources from flooding and human activity while 82% of global bilharzia cases occur in Africa. Water-related diseases prevalent in Africa can be clarified into three categories: 1) Water-borne diseases, such as diarrhoea, dysentery, guinea-worm and hookworm 2) Water-hygiene diseases caused by inadequate water for personal cleanliness, such as cholera, trachoma, typhoid 3) Water-habitat diseases transferred by a) mosquito vectors, such as malaria, filariasis and arboviruses b) snail vectors, such as schistorsomiasis (bilharzia) c) fly vectors, such as onchocerciasis and trypanosomiasis Part of the projected worsening of water-related health status in Africa is due to the effects of climate change: it is expected that the ranges of infectious disease vectors will extend due to climate change. For example, the 1997-98 El Nino events in east Africa led to the outbreak of malaria, Rift Valley fever and cholera in the sub-region. Cholera incidence is exacerbated by precipitation extremes in Africa: while flood contaminates water supplies, droughts make people adopt less hygienic practices. In addition, the risk of outbreak of Rift Valley fever in both humans and livestock increases during wet conditions and flooding, as exemplified by the situation in parts of eastern and southern Africa during 1997-98. Also, reduced precipitation is likely one of the key factors affecting meningococcal infections leading to meningitis epidemics. The variability of precipitation also causes increase in malaria epidemics while flooding facilitates breeding of malaria vectors. Malaria is a major scourge of Africa and is prevalent in almost all areas of the continent. It is unarguably the single most important health risk in Africa, causes between 1.5 to 2.7 millions mortalities annually, 90% of which are children under 5 year of age, slows economic growth by up to 1.3% annually in addition to the treatment cost, and was estimated to have cost about five times more than all development assistance to the region in 1999 (UNEP 2002). Its control would generate short-term economic benefits of between $3 trillion and $12 trillion annually to Africa. The riskiness of the malaria situation in Africa is a complex challenge that best illustrates the effect of different vulnerability factors, most of which are water-related, in engendering disasters. These factors include: climatic conditions (rainfall patterns and rising temperatures), development-based concerns (such as water facilities that provide breeding sites and reduced financial resources for control activities) and political issues (such as armed conflicts and civil unrest causing about 30% of the mortalities from the disease in Africa during 1996-1998) (United Nations 2001). The continent has nine major river basins (such as the Nile, Congo, Zambezi, Okovango, Orange, Volta and Niger rivers, and Lake Chad) as well as smaller ones. Wetlands are common across the continent and cover about 1% of the total area while Africa's freshwater lakes are important water resources. African lakes have a total volume of 30,567 km3 and have the potential to meet all the continents water needs many time over. For example, Lake Tanganyika alone can supply about 400 million people with only 0.05 percent of its annual volume. Instead, dependency on groundwater resources is high: they are the main sources of water supply for more than three quarters of the population in Africa and for about 60% of the population of Southern Africa (UNEP 2002). Groundwater resources are widespread and, overall, contribute about 15% of total renewable water supplies in Africa. Managing risks in surface water resources (river systems, lakes and reservoirs) involves addressing issues of storage, processing, distribution, demand management, degradation and pollution while issues of recharge, degradation, use management are more relevant for underground resources. These issues are discussed in various sections of this paper. There are at least 1,272 large dams in the Africa region, mainly for irrigation and water supply, followed by hydropower generation. South Africa has the highest number of dams (539) followed by Zimbabwe (213) and Algeria (107). Overall, Africa has 2.4% of the world's large reservoirs, including dams. Most of the major river basins in Africa have been dammed, resulting in significant backflooding and reservoir development, disruption of benefits of downstream flows for traditional agriculture, water pollution and increased disease incidence. Dams, and other reservoirs, impact water resources at various levels of aggregation. Primary effects relate to effects of blocking rivers and altering their flow dynamics, secondary impacts are due to changes in river, watershed and ecosystem characteristics and productivity, while tertiary effects concern impacts on the biological life of ecosystems. The modification of the hydrological features of many rivers through damming has negatively affected floodplain livelihoods through loss of vegetation, habitat, species populations, biodiversity, fisheries, wetlands and related riverine and marine ecosystems. Also, they emit greenhouse gases and cause some health problems. In addition, locating a number of large dams on the same river exerts cumulative impacts on flooding, water quality and other aspects of river systems ecosystems. Specific examples of risks from dams in Africa abound. Fish production has significantly reduced in several river basins in Africa due to dams, such as on the Niger below the Kainji dam, on the Zambezi in Mozambique and in the Nile delta, as well as in marine fisheries, such as shrimp fishing in the Zambezi delta and in the Mediterranean due to the Aswan High dam. The stabilization of flows of rivers due to elimination of high discharges arising from dams has resulted in increased infestation by aquatic weeds, including water hyacinth, ferns and reeds, and increase of blackfly infestation, as in the case of the Orange river in South Africa. The impoundment of the river Nile, through establishment of various dams on it, has led to degradation of the downstream delta, through reduction of sediment movement, thereby leading to erosion of the delta coastline by up to 5-8 metres per year while the Akosombo dam on the Volta river in Ghana is causing coastal erosion of Togo and Benin by up to 10-15 metres per year. It should be noted that large dams do have some beneficial impacts, apart from providing water for intended purposes, in directly catalyzing the development of fringe wetland ecosystems. It is the physical, environmental and social harm they cause that is at the root of their riskiness. Managing water related risks from dams involves preventing or reducing the negative impacts of dams from physical failure and their impact on ecosystem status. One of the main sources of risks from dams is that of dam failure due to structural breakdown from engineering defects and effects of some natural hazards such as landslides and earthquakes. The risk from dams is related to the type of dam. Failure of small dams is likely to result in localized flood but the risk from large dams are much more severe and widespread. Consequently, dam safety management is one of the major issues in water risk management. Ensuring dam safety requires the use of risk management principles to assess damage to dams and development and implementation of emergency action plans to ensure safe operation during emergencies. Options for addressing dam safety risks in Africa are limited. A first approach is to accept the risk and manage it, through measures such as improved telemetry, improved dam design, operational procedures and maintenance, warning systems, and, evacuation planning. Another option is to avoid the risk through removing problematic, old or unsuitable dams. This, however, is not a usual practice in Africa. Similarly, a third option of risk transfer through dam insurance is not common in Africa. Overall, mechanisms for reducing risk from dams are not well developed in Africa. In this respect, it is important to realize that there will always be residual risks associated with dams, no matter how well they are designed and operated. Hence, the key to effective dam risk reduction is to constantly assess those risks and plan to mitigate them. Above all it is prudent to observe the precautionary principle in dam development since information is uncertain, unreliable or inadequate to effectively address all issues of risk from dams. 4.
A forward look Meeting the main challenge for water policy and management in Africa involves addressing issues relating to: water management (availability, demand, distribution, access, quality, pollution), risk management (including climate change and variability effects), and, developmental resources and aspects (such as the level and mode of development, resources, technology, institutional, policy and planning, information, and capacity).Overcoming the challenges to achieve the Africa Water Vision requires: (a) improved water resources management, including investment in water storage and water shed management, (b) enhanced community participation and grassroot support, (c) improved governance of water sector, (d) improved knowledge and understanding of water related issues through increased information generation, access, use and exchange as well as increased participation, (e) committed financial and political resources for sustainable long-term water development, (f) increased partnership, cooperation and coordination within and between countries. Prospects for success are mixed and uncertain due to the following:
To enhance chances of success, any successful approach to meeting Africa's water challenges will have to be based on the following principles: 1) meeting human and ecosystem needs; 2) comprehensive water resource development and management, including higher priority to non-structural means of meeting demand; 3) key role of role of science and technology in water resource development and use, particularly smaller scale local technical innovations; 4) emphasis on disaster risk reduction outlook, framework and institutional mechanisms, including increasing role for comprehensive and cumulative risk assessment, and, risk transfer and pooling mechanisms; 5) meeting stakeholder interests through participation, cooperation, coordination, decentralization; 6) knowledge-based development and management of water sector institutional framework, including more frequent application of economic principles; 7) sound overall economic and social development policies in recognition of the strong role of other sectors in promoting water policies; 8) conducive foreign policy. African Development Bank and others (2002), Poverty and Climate Change: Reducing the Vulnerability of the Poor, A Contribution to the Eight Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Consultation Draft. October 2002. Clay E., L. Bohn, E. Blanco de Armas, S. Kabambe and H. Tchale, (2003), Malawi and Southern Africa:: Climatic Variability and Economic Performance, Disaster Risk Management Working Paper Series No. 7, World Bank, Washington D.C Dialogue on Water and Climate, 2003, Climate changes the water rules: How water managers can cope with today's climate variability and tomorrow's climate change. DWC Science Support Office, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Grey, D., 2002, Africa's water Resources Challenges, presented at Water Resources and Development Public Forum, 24th April, 2002. United Nations University Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 1998, The Regional Impacts of Climate Change: An Assessment of Vulnerability. IPCC, Geneva. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2001, Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, UNEP, WMO. Munich Re, 2003, Topics, Annual Review: Natural Catastrophes 2002, Muchener Ruck. UNEP, 2002, Africa Environment Outlook - Past, present and future perspectives, United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi. UNESCO and Bergham Books, 2003, Water for People, Water for Life, The United Nations World Water Development Report, World Water Assessment Programme. United Nations, 2001, Population, Environment and Development 2001, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York.UNISDR, 2002, Living With Risk - A Global Review of Disaster Reduction Initiatives, Preliminary Version, July 2002. Geneva. Vordzorgbe, S. D., 1987, Agricultural Risk, Public Policy and Crop Insurance in Developing Countries - An Overview, USAID/Ghana, Accra. Vordzorgbe, S. D., 1992, Some Consequences of the 1991/92 Drought for the Lesotho Economy, USAID/Lesotho, Maseru. September 1992. Vordzorgbe, S. D., 2001, Integration of the Environment into Poverty Reduction In Ghana: Key Poverty-Environment Linkages, Report Prepared For Department For International Development (DFID), UK. Under Contract to: Scott Wilson Resource Consultants, Edinburgh, UK and Mouchel Consultants, Surrey, UK. May 2001.Vordzorgbe, S. D., 2002, Risk Management And Adaptation: Reflections With Implications For Africa, Paper presented at the UNDP Expert Group Meeting "Integrating Disaster Reduction and Adaptation to Climate Change", Havana, Cuba, 17-19 June 2002. Vordzorgbe, S. D., 2002 B, Review of Disaster Reduction in West Africa, Report prepared for United Nations/International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, African Outreach Programme, United Nations Centre, Nairobi, Kenya. December 2002. Vordzorgbe, S. D., 2003, Disaster Risk Assessment for Sustainable Development in Africa, Part I: Context and Review of Disaster Risk Assessment, UNISDR - AFDB Joint Initiative, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and African Development Bank, July 2003. Vordzorgbe, S. D., 2003 B, Regional Report on Early Warning of Natural Disasters in Africa, Report prepared for the Second International Conference on Early Warning, 16-18 October, 2003, Bonn, Germany. United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, Nairobi. Kenya, July 2003. World Bank, 2003, Water Quality: Assessment and Protection, Water Resources and Environment Technical Note D.1, Washington D.C. World Commission on Dams, 1999, WCD Press Releases & Announcements, 10 November, 1999 (www.dams.org/news_events/press317.htm) World Meteorological Organization, 1999, Comprehensive Risk Assessment for Natural Hazards, WMO/TD No. 955, Geneva.
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