March 13, 2018

Water, the frontier of 21st century conflicts

located:	South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia
editor:	Bob Koigi

As the world comes to terms with the Cape Town water crisis, the worst to have hit a modern city, the reality of fast dwindling water supplies is beginning to sink in. Officials are predicting the city may completely run out of water by next year. According to scientists in the field, global thirst for water is poised to grow by 50 percent in the next decade, even with projected withdrawals projected to surpass natural renewals by 60 percent.

In Sub Saharan Africa, an area that relies heavily on agriculture to feed its people, grow economies and create jobs, water is life.

In such a region, the rate at which water sources are drying up – despite unprecedented demand – has been dubbed 'the biggest catastrophe of the 21st century'. With this demand already fanning deadly conflicts, such local water-based conflicts are expected to get bigger and uglier going forward, with water refugees overtaking war refugees. Border communities, especially pastoralists between Kenya and Ethiopia, have been engaged in sporadic feuds as they scramble for limited pasture and water for their livestock. But the conflicts have been taking brazen and chilling dimensions, with reported kidnappings, torture and rape as women and children have been caught in the crossroads. While such conflicts have been historically concentrated in pastoralist areas, a new wave is currently experienced in both rural and urban areas, as failed rains affect farming, the mainstay of a bulk of the rural population, pushing more people to urban areas in search of alternatives.

The lack of adequate quantities of water, especially in the densely populated zones of many cities, has resulted in disorder and chaos, with illegal water connections and cartels running city water sources. In some cities, like Nairobi and Lagos, the deadly urban water related conflict has seen police officers hired to man water sources.

While the water situation may not improve anytime soon, there are ways of arresting the circumstance before it exacerbates further. Human activities are the direct cause of the water shortages experiences across Sub Saharen Africa, and with that, the solutions should be based on initiatives that encourage or halt what got us here. Protection of water towers through extensive afforestation, reforrerstation, public private partnerships and judicious water use through modern irrigation are the basic but vital steps in stopping further dwindling and keeping us alive.

READ also our dossier on WATER.