Amandla

...This paper addresses the challenges of transporting water to people, within South Africa and Malawi, and offers a description of leadership initiatives with regard to accessing water, in these southern African countries. The discussion also evaluates the water privatisation model. In addition, the environmental impacts associated with not having access to water, along with the sustainable practices in development and interventions that can be introduced with regards to service delivery, will be discussed...[more]

Sarah Kiggundu works for Consultancy Africa Intelligence’s Enviro Africa Unit

From Consultancy Intelligence Africa

 

AFRICA: ACCESS TO WATER AND PRIVATISATION: why proclaim access to water a fundamental human right?
Jacques Cambon
Despite UN recognition of access ?to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right that is essential for the full enjoyment f life and all human rights,? it is a right that is far from being realised in most parts of the world, writes Jacques Cambon.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73860



THE WATER CRISIS IN AFRICAN CITIES
Michel Makpenon
Access to running water remains in a state of crisis for a huge number if people across Africa, writes Michel Makpenon. With growing urbanisation across the continent, African cities will need the political determination to ensure sustainable water resources based onsocial need rather than commercial concerns, he stresses.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73836



GHANA'S QUEST TO QUENCH ITS THIRST
Alhassan Adam
Ghana has a long history of struggle against the inequitable allocation of water - beginning with protests against colonial water policy and, more recently, with opposition to water privatisation that began in the 1990s. Alhassan Adam writes about the history, the challenge to privatisation and the road ahead.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73856



THE COMMODIFICATION OF WATER AND LAND IN MALI
S'kou Diarra
Mali's Dogon have traditionally seen water as a source of life and a public good, with the right to water "a prerequisite to all other human rights." Now the privatisation of water threatens to exclude citizens from managing their most precious resource, leaving "the task ith a commercially minded technocracy", says S'kou Diarra.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73861



WATER PRIVATISATION: SENEGAL AT THE CROSSROADS
Olivier Petitjean and Elimane Diouf
While the Senegalese government wishes to "disengage financially from the water sector", it is precisely the previous public management of water that has begun to improve infrastructure and people's access to the resource.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73837



WATER MANAGEMENT REFORM IN RURAL AREAS OF SENEGAL
Moussa Diop
Changes to the water sector in Senegal that have seen a disengagement of the state and the promotion of the private sector have had unforeseen effects, writes Moussa Diop. Increased waste in domestic water consumption is one of the contradictions, while existing social relations also have a significant impact on the water delivery environment.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73859



POLLUTION: AFRICA'S REAL RESOURCE CURSE?
Khadija Sharife
A Tanzanian gold mine leaks polluted water into a major river. A mining town in Zambia is listed as amongst the most polluted places in the world. And a water pollution problem in South Africa that is caused by mining threatens national water resources. Khadija Sharife examines the hidden costs behind Africa's resource extraction reputation.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73857



PUBLIC-PUBLIC PARTNERSHIPS IN WATER: an overview
David Hall
Donors and development banks have largely focused on private-public partnerships in their attempts to develop water management capacity round the world, overlooking the vast expertise of public sector later operators. But now they too are starting to recognise the benefits of public-public partnerships for the provision of public later and sanitation services, writes David Hall.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73862



STRENGTHENING PUBLIC WATER: South–South–North public–public partnerships
Samir Bensaid
While both North-South partnerships and South-South partnerships have strengths and limitations, linking these in networked models is an effective way to mobilise expertise and funding and achieve success, writes Samir Bensaid, with reference to the example of ONEP (Morocco) and SNDE (Mauritania).
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73858



THE WRONG CLIMATE FOR BIG DAMS: why Africa should shun hydropower megaprojects
Lori Pottinger
Hydropower dams are "well-suited for facilitating industrialisation and exploitation of natural resources, but not for reducing Africa's energy poverty", writes Lori Pottinger. And given the water-security problems posed by climate change, "the proposed frenzy of African dam building could be literally disastrous".
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73863



THE COST OF ADDING CARBON CREDITS TO CLEAN WATER
Shiney Varghese
Linking carbon credits to clean water initiatives as a means of reducing carbon emissions is simply a corporate effort to cash in on measures to tackle climate change, writes Shiney Varghese.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/73834

 UN-Habitat: Sustainable Mobility in African Cities

This report is the summary of the seminar on Sustainable Development of Public Transport in Africa held in Nairobi, Kenya, on November 10 and 11, 2009. The event was jointly organised by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UNHABITAT), UITP (the International Association of Public Transport) and UATP (the African Association of Public Transport). This report can be downloaded here in PDF or from UN-Habitat.  From UN Pulse: Permanent Link: UN-Habitat:Sustainable Mobility in African Cities

UNDP Issue Brief: Urban Water Provision in Sub-Saharan Africa 

This document summarizes results from case studies in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. It notes that although small-scale private providers increase water supply coverage and reduce time spent on fetching water, in the absence of a coherent policy framework with effective tariff enforcement and water quality monitoring, services delivery is often costly and of varying quality. This issue brief, (which also contains details of how to obtain copies of the original studies) can be downloaded in PDF here or from the UNDP website.             From UN Pulse: Permanent Link: UNDP Issue Brief: Urban Water Provision in Sub-Saharan Africa

UNEP has published the Africa Waters Atlas. This Atlas vividly illustrates the importance of Africa’s water resources in supplying millions of people with life-giving water and in supporting activities that are crucial to the ecosystems and economies. This is revealed through 224 maps and 104 satellite images as well as some 500 graphics and hundreds of compelling photos in this atlas.The Atlas is more than just a collection of static maps and images accompanied by informative facts and figures, its visual elements vividly illustrate a succinct narrative describing and analyzing Africa’s water issues and exemplifying them through the judicious use of case studies.UN Pulse: Permanent Link: UNEP: Africa Water Atlas

This review of the World Bank Group's water strategy, calls for better information and a more integrated approach to water management. It notes highly satisfactory outcome ratings for World Bank water projects, and an appropriate emphasis on high-priority countries, that is, countries whose people face obstacles to their access to water. From Polity.org.za

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/NEWS/Resources/sustainingwater.pdf

 

 

 

 

Middle East Water Collection
The Middle East Water Collection forms part of the digital library of Oregon State University. It provides free access to a wealth of resources relating to the political, economic, legal and security issues surrounding water supply in the Middle East. Users may access articles, maps, technical reports and documents from national governments and international organisations. Full text links are offered to many of the resources, however other entries contain abstracts only. Key topic areas include agriculture, irrigation, the physical geography of the Middle East; military and security factors relating to water supply and political geography. Countries covered include: Jordan; Kuwait; Bahrain; Saudi Arabi; Israel; Palestine; Syria; Lebanon; Libya. The site may be searched by keyword or browsed by geographical region. From Intute.ac.uk
http://digitalcollections.library.oregonstate.edu/cdm4/client/mewaters/

Middle East Water Collection

The Third United Nations World Water Development Report called Water in Changing World is now available online in English (full-text, pdf, 30MB). This publication is the result of the collaboration between 26 UN agencies and entities. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the state of the world's freshwater resources and stress the need of urgent actions in order to avoid a global water crisis. The report also emphasizes the decisions made outside the water sector which are affecting water management. From UN Pulse

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has released a final declaration (full-text, pdf) of the pan-African Ministerial Conference on Water for Agriculture and Energy in Africa: The Challenges of Climate Change (conference website). According to an FAO press release, "the Conference agreed to foster research and development of renewable energy and agriculture in Africa in order to increase resilience and adaptation to climate change."

UN Pulse permalink

Safer Water, Better Health, a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO), finds that almost one tenth of the global disease burden could be prevented by improving water supply, sanitation, hygiene and management of water resources (full text, pdf, 2.6 MB). The report provides evidence and economic arguments for integrating water, sanitation and hygiene in countries' disease reduction strategies.  UN Pulse  Permanent Link: Safer water, better health