Aqua and Authority: Tracing the Tides of Water Politics in Africa

Welcome to my inaugural blog post about water and politics in Africa! Please join my journey of delving into multiple case studies in this fascinating continent Africa in the coming months.

When Sahara was Green

From the maps below we could see the abundance of water resources in the well-known Sahara desert, many of you may think: Sahara has this much water? The truth is, 11,000-5000 years ago, Sahara was covered in vegetation and lake. The depth of groundwater storage is at peak greater than 50,000. Africa has water, but the problem is access, which is also Sustainable Development Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation. Water means life and growth (Gonzalez and Yanes, 2015), so does politics. Water is a vital being that we all need. This signifies the importance of water and why people, villages, tribes, countries fight for it (Masiangoako et al., 2022). The claim and governance of water resource increases tension between countries, where tension builds up to a geopolitical event in the great Nile river.

Figure 2. Groundwater productivity map (BGS, 2011)

Figure 1. Groundwater storage map (BGS, 2011)

Whispers of the Nile: Unveiling the Water-Politics Nexus

The Nile, one of the world's longest rivers, has historically been a symbol of sustenance, civilisation and life. However, in recent years, it has morphed into a crucible of contention among the nations it flows through, symbolising their intricate relationship between water and politics in Africa. The Nile Basin is home to 487.3 million people and currently witnessing a geopolitical tussle which has broader implications for regional stability.  

This dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia over Nile waters is more than a mere political squabble. It highlights human ecology that 'the social is embedded in the ecological' (Ostrom, 2015). At the heart of this discord is a natural resource - water. Just like many African countries, Ethiopia faces challenges of erratic rain patterns due to global warming. This creates uncertainty, and a solution to an unpredictability is certainty. The construction of dam to protect the human ecology for dryer seasons is inevitable. Not only does it helps store water but also hydroelectricity generation for the benefit of people. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) places Ethiopia on a higher political ground especially among its unwilling neighbours Egypt and Sudan (Elsanabary and Ahmed, 2018). On a local perspective, a human rights lawyer and water expert Ahmed al-Mufti believes that the dam 'will cause a water war' (The Guardian, 2020).

Figure 3. Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (France 24)

However, global warming and geopolitical tension is not built up in days, but for centuries long. Especially the political tension among water between African countries where it heightened in colonial periods. I will delve deeper into the historical context, water management, and international cooperation of in the coming blogs along with many other case studies to elaborate the concept of water and politics in Africa and come up with possible governance advices on water management for countries.