Urban Africa's Water Crisis

Showers (2002) asserts that much of Urban Africa confronts or will confront water scarcity. She reviews literature of the last decade on the topic of Urban Africa’s water supply, claiming that most theories are centred around water pricing, distribution and sanitation infrastructure. More recently, the debate has been on the origins of increased fresh water, how and where it should be disposed of, and implications of both for rural landscapes and for urban planning and policy.
Before continuing with the subject of water in Urban Africa, let’s just define ‘Urban Africa’. An urban area refers to a city’s major population centres; in Africa, this can vary from district capitals to megacities due to vast variations in population across the continent.

Okay, back to business… where does urban African water come from? The UN (1973; cited in Showers, 2002) claim that in the early 70s, the primary source of water was ground water through springs, boreholes and wells. In the 1990s, urban areas began to collect water through construction of barrages, dams and reservoirs. Thus it can be seen, that more recently, both surface water and groundwater is used as a water source in Africa. Showers (2002) shows the changes in urban water sources between the 1970s and 1990s in the table below.

So what happens after the water is used. Well, it either goes through domestic and industrial waste management systems or it undergoes aquatic consequences (Abiodun, 1997 ; cited in Rakodi, 1997). In the next post, I will discuss sanitation and waste management systems. However, for now, I will leave you with another table of the astonishing quality of water in Urban Africa, provided by Showers (2002).