(1) Introductions

Welcome to my blog on water and politics in Africa!

Before starting my first post, I asked my flatmates the first thing that came to mind when given the prompt ‘water and development in Africa’. Their responses largely fall into two categories- 

First, a ‘doom-and-gloom’ depiction of an environmentally challenged Africa. Scenes described include droughts driving overpopulated communities from their homes, and over-exploited dwindling wells which lead to violent conflicts. 

Second, a ‘Rising Africa’ where technology and foreign investment in water infrastructures push Africa for the better. 

Figure 1: The Kariba Dam between Zambia and Zimbabwe, holding back the world’s largest reservoir and generating electricity for both nations. The dam is funded by the World Bank. 

Centering Africa in water and development debates is a critical but complex and challenging exercise. ‘Doom-and-gloom’ discourses have historically been used by the West as tools of cultural power to compare Africa against a racially and politically ‘superior’ Europe, therefore justifying colonialism and other forms of expansion. Today, western imaginaries continue to encourage a ‘white saviour’ mindset, so to justify financial or infrastructure interventions to support a ‘rising Africa’. 

To achieve a truly ‘rising’ Africa requires more than the performance of allyship, but to decolonise ‘conventional’ knowledge surrounding Africa. For example, buzzwords like ‘vulnerability’ and ‘resilience’ are often thrown around in discussions on African development. Yet these terms are understood differently by different people, including locals who may disagree with the oversimplified measurements and indicators of water scarcity that scientists and policy-makers operate with. In fact, Africa’s aquifers contain abundant underground water that supports the daily lives of 75% of the Sub-Saharan African population. Farmers in Nigeria, like elsewhere on the continent, have employed various livelihood strategies to adapt well to the seasonal water dynamics, defying notions of ‘vulnerable’ communities ‘struggling’ in ‘harsh’ environments. This is not to deny any potential threats to water accessibility, but to remind us that assumptions on water and development in Africa need to be spatially and historically (re)examined. 

Figure 2: Farmers planting rice in the Betsimitatatra flood plain, Madagascar.

Returning to my flatmates' two responses, although they seem to portray contrasting narratives of Africa at first glance, they overlap by sharing the same supply-side understanding of water and development. ‘Doom-and-gloom Africa’ fears that resources and population pose “limits to growth”, while ‘Rising Africa’ believes that infrastructural investment and technological transfer offer solutions by boosting the environment’s carrying capacity. Unsurprisingly, many water policies are designed to primarily address overall water quantity, instead of equitable water accessibility and distribution. As a result, (post)colonial powers and economic elites have been able to defend their interests by politicising and weaponising water to justify disruptive and disempowering policies: manipulating transboundary upstream water supply; privatising water systems; disrupting creative informal urban solutions; to name a few. 

This series of blogs aims to critically engage with Africa’s water and politics. I am particularly interested in exploring concepts related to infrastructural power and environmental justice. While this introductory post sets the scene by examining the myriad links between the Western powers and water access in Africa, you can expect to see posts on topics such as transboundary water conflicts and cooperation, as well as colonial legacies of water governance. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned!