Water and Food in Africa

While North Africa faces the depletion of its non-renewable groundwater resources, the Sahel, on the contrary, struggles with too much renewable groundwater. The paradox in Niamey, Niger Niger, like many semi-arid countries of the Sahel, experiences constant variations in precipitation. From the 1970s to the late 20th century, rainfall significantly reduced, and droughts became longer. At the same time, quite paradoxically, a constant increase in groundwater level was recorded (Leblanc et al., 2008 ). This phenomenon called ‘the Sahelian paradox’ is typical for southwestern Niger, where regular droughts and rapid population growth have driven up the demand for agricultural production ( Favreau et al., 2009 ). Extensive areas of land were cleared in the 1950s, which has led to extensive and long-term losses of vegetation cover in the savannah. Cultivated land reduced the amount of evapotranspiration, and in turn, increased Hortonian runoff. As a consequence, the groundwater table cli...

Following my previous post, we will now explore the causes of unsustainable groundwater use in North Africa, and some proposed solutions. Map of transboundary water aquifer between Morocco and Algeria and the location of boreholes ( Fanack Water, 2019 ) Key drivers Factors contributing to the unsustainable use of groundwater for irrigation can be briefly summarised into three categories. First is the ‘groundwater economy’ - the profit and production-driven use of groundwater for irrigation ( Lejars, Daoudi and Amichi, 2017 ). Public policies designed to use groundwater resources sustainably and equitably are often merely tokenisation than actual implementation ( Kuper, Amichi and Mayaux, 2017 ). Together with the emergence of private, ‘informal’ agricultural practices in the 1980s, meeting short-term production goals has been prioritised over sustainable resource use by both the state and individual users. Secondly, regional rivalries trigger unhealthy rates of abstraction. Spanning ...

At the recent 27th Conference of the Parties (COP27) under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), countries convened in pursuit of raising awareness and scaling up actions to address the climate emergency (UNFCCC, 2022) . Having had the chance to attend the conference in person, I am using this entry to reflect on my personal experiences and highlight issues within the North African agriculture sector. COP27 - new hopes for Water and Food? Being held in Egpyt, one of the aridest regions in Africa, climate adaptation naturally became a core topic at COP27. Water - a key aspect of adaptation - seemed to have benefited from this attention (GWP, 2019) . Although the topic is only briefly touched upon in the Koronivia Joint Programme (UNFCCC’s main programme on agriculture) water made it onto the final, overarching outcome, or formally, “ the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan ” as an independent agenda item. This is a major milestone from last year’s Glasgow Climate P...