One of the ways in which the water crisis in Africa has been
studied is by looking at where and to what extent water shortages occur. In 1989, Malin Falkenmark published a paper using her very widely used Water Stress Index to emphasise
the ‘massive water scarcity’ threatening Africa. Yet, how does this worrisome issue actually translate
to outcomes in sanitation and health? In this blog entry I will look at the
foundations of this water index and how it may help assess sanitation-related issues. The
backdrop of Falkenmark’s paper is the recurrent and serious droughts in Africa
during the latter half of the twentieth century that caused many to lack access
to water, especially clean safe water.
To
assess water scarcity, information about the gross water available in the
country is needed, calculated from measurements of number of flow units as
river discharge (equal to 1 million metres cubed per year). This water quantity
is compared to the number of people dependent on the water (for food, drink,
washing, manufacturing etc) to analyse the degree of water stress. The Water
Stress Index states that water scarcity occurs when an area has fewer than
1000m3 of water per person per year. The simple index is useful because it
takes into account demography and number of people dependent on a restricted
quantity of water in a country each year. This is important to investigate
because a higher people-to-water ratio and population density not only means
that there is less water to go around (and that, in reality, inequalities of
distribution will arise), but also that quality of water used is often
compromised. Falkenmark's diagram below illustrates different levels of water scarcity, with
each cube representing one flow unit and each dot representing 100 people reliant on that
unit. Typical usage in industrialised countries is between 100 and 500 people
per flow unit; in temperate zones, beyond 500 people per unit would mean a
country is considered water stressed.
In light of this, it is ‘deeply worrying’ that many African
countries are seeing numbers higher than these - and which are still rising (Falkenmark 1989: 115). In the period 2005-10, the African continent saw the
highest average population growth rate at 2.3% per year (UNFPA 2009). Judging
by the Index and the author’s predictions, most of East and some South African
countries would be water stressed by 2000 and, 25 years later, some of them
would face scarcity. In 1982, Malawi had a population of about 6.6 million and
was estimated to increase to over 11.6 million by the year 2000, with level of
competition for each flow unit going from 730 to 1300 people (Falkenmark1989:113). Demand is clearly
out-stripping supply – population growth is high and there is a need for
greater water quantity to expand agriculture and increase yields.
Water shortage mainly influences sanitation by its effects on quality of drinking water. Africa as a whole did not meet the Millennium Development
Goal (MDG) target of halving the proportion of the population without access to
safe drinking water and basic sanitation. According to the Africa
Water Atlas, water stress or scarcity means that both quantity and quality
of water is insufficient to be able to ‘provide safe drinking water, food and
hygiene’ (UNEP 2012: 16). Since water is an absolute necessity to live, in areas of high rainfall variability during
times of shortage, people may resort to using lower standards of
water. For example, if water from an improved water source (e.g. a well) fails
or is not enough, households may turn to water collection from unprotected
sources, such as rivers or streams. Yet even if they still only used improved water sources, the microbiological quality of the water in these deteriorates when rainfall decline significantly. A major consequence of this is the
increased incidence of water-borne diseases, such as cholera and typhoid. The
1991-92 drought in southern Africa left many, especially in rural areas,
without access to water. In Malawi, this number reached around 3 million, and the
use of unprotected sources which were open to contamination ‘led to outbreaks
of diarrhoea, cholera and dysentery’ (Calow etal. 2010: 248). At the end of 1992, the country faced a large cholera
outbreak, with over 25,000 cases and 524 deaths reported (WHO 2010).
It is good to see you engage well with a critical debate here but there are some key arguments your post above appears to be missing. Is there a relationship between water scarcity and access to safe water? Your post appears to suggest that there is but there is not. Indeed, there is no relationship between high water stress as you assert and "low levels of access to sanitation". In fact, nationally in Africa, it is roughly the reverse, the most water-scarce countries of North Africa have some of the highest proportions of their population with access to sanitation. There needs to be more critical insight in your blog and you would do well to review the first two lectures and associated reading in GEOG3038. Indeed, two blogs in week 6 of term are insufficient. I do hope that you will be blogging weekly over the second half of term.
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