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The Blue Revolution Challenge The blue revolution is a prerequisite to both the green and red revolutions. This is because water availability and access is a major constraining factor in food production, health and industrial development. The major challenge in achieving a blue revolution is to manage Africa's water resources in a visionary and integrated manner to match demand and supply both temporally and spatially in both quantitative qualitative terms. This challenge results from many threats both natural and human. The natural threats include the multiplicity of trans-boundary water basins, extreme and temporal variability of climate and rainfall, and growing water scarcity, shrinking of some water bodies, and desertification. The human threats include: the pursuit of inappropriate governance and institutional arrangements in managing national and transnational water basins; the depletion of water resources through pollution, environmental degradation, and deforestation; failures to invest adequately in resource assessment, protection and development; and unsustainable financing of investments in water supply and sanitation. An indicator for the relationship of the blue revolution to the green revolution is the change in irrigated areas over a fixed time period. Over the period 1961 to 1999, the changes in the net irrigated areas for the various regions of the world is illustrated in the table below:
Source: FAO in World Irrigation and Water Statistics 2002 (IWMI) This table shows that the increase in irrigated area was the least in both absolute and last but one in percentage terms. It is even more serious when analyzed in terms of potential irrigated areas. Less than 6% of Africa's arable and permanent cropland is irrigated compared to an average of 33% for Asia where the green revolution is acknowledged as having been successful. It is even more pertinent to note that Africa's regional average masks the fact that most of the increase in irrigated area over the period has been concentrated in North Africa which accounted for 2,122,000 out of the 5,171, 000 hectares increase over the period or 41 % of the total increase. Science and Technology can play a very important role in meeting the challenges of achieving the blue revolution through its applications with respect to: 1. Water Resources Assessment and Forecasting. 2. Harnessing of rainfall, river flows and groundwater. 3. Improving the efficiency of water use 4. Protecting the quality of water from pollution sources both man-made and natural. 5. Ensuring the Knowledge Base at all levels from river basins to household. Technology, including ICTs, exist and are continually being improved for the assessment and forecasting of water resources availability. However their use in the management of Water resources in Africa are very limited. Existing data collection and analysis systems set up during the Colonial era have been neglected and become dilapidated in many countries. The lack of accurate information on the resources is one of the major constraints for developing water resources in Africa. The use of space based platforms for weather forecasting and disseminating climate information to for use in agriculture, industry, disaster prevention and management (ie droughts and floods) is well advanced but not yet utilized widely in Africa. The National Hydrological systems in most African Countries are in a state of disrepair and need rehabilitation. Better and more efficient technological devices are currently available which when linked to the nascent ICT networks will rapidly improve the assessment and dissemination on water resources and engender the blue revolution. Water for food, health and industry are primarily obtained from rainfall, river flows and groundwater. The technologies for harnessing these water sources in Africa are very basic and innovations that exist have not been widely adopted. A clear dichotomy exists between the available technologies used in rural and urban areas. Rural Africa is characterized by low access to water and where there is access the quality of water, mainly from surface sources, are inadequate to ensure protection from the more than fifty water borne or related diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, yellow fever, dysentery and river blindness which are endemic in many parts of the continent. Ground water sources tend to be cleaner but are characterized by an unsustainable dependence on imported technologies that are excruciated by lack of maintenance and standardization of drilling equipment. In Urban areas, water reticulation systems are very old and lack of maintenance lead to leakages and intrusion of disease causing microorganisms especially in areas where there is lack of sewerage systems and stand-alone toilets are used. A good indicator of this phenomenon is the increased used of bottled water in most urban areas to avoid disease. In a pilot study by UN Habitat for 5 major cities (Accra, Johannesburg, Cairo, Addis Ababa and Nairobi) water losses through leakages average about 50%. These losses in the face of rapid urbanization and the mushrooming of peri-urban slums without adequate access to potable water need immediate solutions. These solutions can be both technological and behavioral. Rehabilitation of the physical systems needs new technologies and more durable materials which when combined with demand management can significantly improve the access to and efficiency of Urban Water use. With regard to rural areas, mostly agricultural, rainwater harvesting and small-scale irrigation technologies provide more efficient water use for both domestic water and agriculture. The objective for agriculture can be summarized as " more crop per drop". The Africa Water Vision for 2025 - result of a collaborative effort by ECA, AfDB, AU and other stakeholders such as the Global Water Partnership -- is designed to avoid the disastrous consequences of the threats and lead to a future where the full potential in Africa's water resources can be unleashed to stimulate and sustain growth in the region's economic development and social well being. The shared vision is for "An Africa where there is an equitable and sustainable use and management of water resources for poverty alleviation, socio-economic development, regional cooperation, and the environment". The Africa Water Vision for 2025 calls for a new way of thinking about water and a new form of regional co-operation. At the regional level, partnership and solidarity are required between countries that share common water basins. At the national level, efforts should focus on fundamental changes in policies, strategies and legal frameworks, as well as changes in institutional arrangements and management practices and the adoption of participatory approaches, management at the lowest appropriate level, and the mainstreaming of gender issues and the concerns of the youth. At the global level, achieving the Vision calls for assistance from Africa's development partners in mobilising seed funding for priming the urgent developments needed to underpin sustainable water resources management in the region. Above all, success in realizing the Africa Water Vision for 2025 will require adherence to the following critical success factors:
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