Water and Food in Africa

Falkenmark (1989) proposed one of the first quantitative metrics and currently the most accepted measurements of water scarcity - the Water Stress Index (WSI)  which quantifies water scarcity based on the “hydraulic density of population”. However, the freshwater resources were computed based on simulations of mean annual river runoff (MARR) not only masks the inter-annual variability in discharge which is substantial in semi-arid regions in Africa ( McMahon et al, 2007 ) , but also neglects the importance of groundwater storage ( Damkjaer and Taylor, 2017 ).  The exclusion of groundwater is particularly problematic and the potential of groundwater cannot be underestimated. Building on the last blog which found that climate change will reduce renewable surface water in some parts of Africa with increasing variability in rainfall, the population in sub-Saharan is expected to double , groundwater could be a strategic resource for coping with growth in water and food demands....

Global climate change is affecting Africa, as it is on every other continent in the world.  Water and food security in the area already faces multiple threats stemming from climate variability, entrenched poverty, environmental degradation, rapid urbanisation and high population. Now the impacts of climate change will be superimposed onto these intertwined issues, and the relationships involved are likely to be highly nonlinear ( Carter and Parker, 2009 ). This blog will explore some of the impacts of climate change in Africa. Existing hydrological variability As mentioned in the introduction, we should now know that variability is a keyword in Africa. The temporal variability of rainfall can be illustrated in Table 1 from a study by Peter and Parker. We can see that about 95% of annual rainfalls lie in the range  ±16–45% around the mean; the coefficient of variation CoV is twice higher than what you might find in the UK. This has a significant implication for the water supp...

Hello and welcome to my blog. Over the next few months, we will be exploring the subject of water and food in Africa.  A general note  Before we begin， I would like to reflect on the article  “ How to write about Africa ” written by Binyavanga Wainaina. She argues that mainstream media and other writings tend to "treat Africa as if it were one country": a place full of malnutrition, drought, famine and in need of saving. After reading this article, I began reflecting on the perception I had about Africa before choosing the topic of Water and Food, and what was expected from me to think about water security from a privileged position where water is always available. With this in mind, I will be cautious to avoid assumptions and stereotypes, and I am determined to uncover the complexities and potentials of water and food in Africa.  Why water and food?  Water is imperative for basic sanitation, drinking water, industrial and agricultural usages and a luxury that m...