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Zimbabwe’s government recently declared a nationwide state of disaster, as drought combines with economic and political crises to push farmers and city water networks to the brink. According to WRI’s Aqueduct tool, many African countries have extremely high water risk. This metric considers multiple factors, including vulnerability to droughts and floods, seasonal variability and competition for available water. Already, one in every three people across Africa face water scarcity. Nearly 400 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are denied even a basic drinking water supply.
While climate is an important factor driving water stress in Africa and around the world, poor management of water resources and services is the biggest challenge. As climate change makes rainfall more erratic and increases the risks of floods and droughts, investing in better water management and infrastructure is becoming even more important. These investments can strengthen economies. When targeted at the poorest people, they offer a triple dividend: alleviating poverty, supporting jobs and growth, and reducing vulnerability to climate change.
Investments in three key areas of the water sector will improve people’s resilience to climate change across Africa:
Securing safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene for all in sub-Saharan Africa would require $35 billion per year in capital costs, just 0.5% of the total spending required for global infrastructure.
Cheap, “low-regret” options can make water and sanitation services more resilient to climate change. Smart design and management can keep boreholes flowing during droughts, or stop latrines from overflowing during floods. In response to recurring drought, Ethiopia’s government is using public finance to invest up front in water and sanitation services. It is also screening rural water supply projects for climate risk. Acting later is often more costly, as we see in Zimbabwe. In the capital city Harare, the city council has had to buy expensive water tankers to ferry water to residents.
Even in a changing climate, design may not be the biggest challenge facing engineers and policymakers in Africa. Often, a harder task is securing revenue to maintain infrastructure and adapt it to climate change once built. This requires taking policy action to back investment in gradual improvements and to make people to pay for water services, while shielding the most vulnerable from unaffordable costs through well-targeted subsidies. While only 15% of city residents in Kampala and Lagos have access to piped water, for these households, piped water is by far the safest and most affordable (up to 52 times cheaper) option. With secure revenue streams, private finance is also more likely to flow into the sector.
Poor communities often face greater exposure to climate hazards, such as more extreme rainfall or drought conditions, and have fewer resources to cope. By 2030, climate change could drive more than 100 million people globally into extreme poverty. In sub-Saharan Africa, 90% of the rural population depend on agriculture as their main source of income, and over 95% of arable farming relies on rainfall. Rising temperatures and unpredictable rainfall caused by climate change are expected to lower crop yields and raise prices. Governments must establish policies to reduce risks up front and manage those risks that are unavoidable.
According to Aqueduct, many African countries face extremely high water risk. This metric considers multiple factors, including vulnerability to droughts and floods, seasonal variability, and water stress.
A Guest Editorial