Proceedings of the International Symposium on Efficient Water Use in Urban Areas


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MANAGING WATER FOR AFRICAN CITIES
UCNHS (Habitat) & UNEP JOINT INITIATIVE

Dr. Graham Alabaster
Human Settlement Officer, Infrastructure Unit, UNCHS (Habitat)

Problem Statement

Africa is experiencing the most rapid rate of urbanization in the world. The growing number of medium and large cities in the continent face a major challenge of providing their populations with adequate water supply, with large parts of the continent facing severe water stress. African cities urgently need to put in place effective water demand management strategies that could use the limited water resources efficiently without wastage, and widen the service coverage, particularly in the burgeoning urban low-income settlements.

A major environmental crisis is also looming large in the continent as the African cities continue to discharge ever increasing volumes of waste into freshwater bodies, threatening water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Several African cities share one or more international river basins which present a special challenge of managing water resources in these basins, avoiding future conflicts. A business-as-usual approach to urban water resources management threatens not only the sustainability of its cities but also its precious water resources and supporting ecosystems which are closely linked to Africa’s future.

Solution Proposed

The project is a collaborative initiative of UNCHS (Habitat) and UNEP within the framework of the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa, and is a direct follow-up of the Cape Town Declaration (1997) adopted by African Ministers addressing the urgent need for managing water for African cities.

The project intervention will be the first comprehensive initiative to support African countries to effectively manage the growing urban water crisis and protect the continent’s threatened water resources and aquatic ecosystems from the increasing volume of land-based pollution from the cities. The project will, specifically, focus on the following two interlinked priorities:

Water Demand Management in African Cities: The project will put in place an effective water demand management (WDM) strategy in ten African cities for efficient water use by al users; the project will institutionalize WDM measures in ten selected African cities by providing technical assistance to establish dedicated WDM units within existing city-level institutions and facilitate city-wide action plans for WDM.
Mitigating the impact of urbanization on freshwater resources and aquatic ecosystems: The project will assist African countries to put in place in four river and lake basins early warning mechanisms for timely detection of potential ‘hot spots’, where sustainability is likely to be threatened; the project will also facilitate the assessment of long-term environmental impact of the growing ecological footprints of large cities on the continent’s water resources.

The project will be implemented in collaboration with the Ministries of Water Resources, Environment and Urban Development in the participating countries. Other collaborative agencies will be the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Lake Basin Authorities, Global Collaborative Council for Water and Sanitation and the Water Utility Partnership for Capacity Building in Africa.

BACKGROUND OF THE INITIATIVE

Africa is witnessing an unprecedented urban transition as it approaches the twenty-first century. The region, which, until recently, was predominantly rural, is experiencing the world’s most rapid rate of urbanization at nearly 5 per cent per annum. Its urban population will nearly quadruple from 138 million in 1990 to 500 million in 2020, with increasing concentration in medium and large cities. By 2020, Africa’s major cities (with more than one million population) will accommodate almost 200 million people – 20 per cent of the region’s population and 40 per cent of its urban population.

African cities are already playing a key role in the development efforts of countries in the region, contributing to growth, exports and employment. These include not only the megacities with act as centres of political power and commerce (e.g. Cairo, Lagos, Abidjan and Johannesburg), but also some 25 million-plus cities (1990) which account for half or more of the gross domestic product of the respective countries. With increasing emphasis on industrialization and the growth of the tertiary sector, cities will continue to act as nerve centres and engines of growth in the continent.

As the African continent follows patterns of unprecedented urbanization, the demands for water supply for industrial, commercial and domestic sectors continue to rise and outpace the capacities of governments resulting in gaps which have steadily widened over the years, threatening sustainable development and the environment of cities. Drinking water supply coverage in African cities is the poorest among all regions, with more than a quarter of urban populations remaining without adequate access to safe water.

The increasing concentration of populations in urban areas and the growth of large cities in the continent also pose enormous pressure on the fresh water resources of African countries. The per capita water availability continues to decline in Africa. A survey of 29 Sub-Saharan African countries in 1990 showed that 8 were suffering from water stress or water scarcity. By 2025 this number will increase to 20 out of the 29. Many cities require freshwater to be conveyed great distances or abstracted from deep aquifers. Cities are also discharging ever increasing volumes of waste into freshwater bodies, threatening water quality and aquatic ecosystems. Please see indicators collected by Habitat on cities.

Some of the key factors which aggravate the situation and could pose serious threat not only to the sustainability of cities but also to the supporting ecosystems can be identified.

Increasing needs of cities

As the African cities continue to grow, the hinterland from which they draw upon water resources also expand. Many African cities have already outgrown the capacity of local sources to provide adequate, sustainable, water supplies.

Dakar (Senegal), for instance, with a population of 250,000 in 1961, relied on its basalt aquifer for drinking water supplies. By 1988, its population had reached 1.5 million and the local ground water supplies were already over-pumped, resulting in saline intrusion. A large part of the city’s water has now to be brought in from the Lac de Guiers, 200 kilometers away.

The agricultural hinterlands supporting the cities are also expanding with growing urban populations, often resulting in deforestation and accelerated soil erosion. The sedimentation loads caused by deforestation in Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique (urban populations in these countries have grown three to ten fold between 1950 and 1990) are inhibiting fish reproduction in Lake Malawi.

Urban growth in water stress regions

Several African countries experiencing rapid urban growth, or already with large urban agglomerations, currently suffer from chronic water stress or water scarcity and, what is more important, the per capita water availability is sharply declining the large majority of these countries.

For example, urban centres relying fully or in part on the Nile (Cairo, Alexandria), Tana (Nairobi), Limpopo (Johannesburg, Pietersburg, Bulawayo and Gaborone) and Orange river (Upington) basins already experience water scarcity, and those in Lake Chad (N’Djamena, Maiduguri), and Niger (Bamako, Niamey and Abuja) basins currently experience water stress. By 2020, water scarcity will extend to al these basins, with per capita water availability reduced to less than 1000 cubic metres per year.

Urban centres sharing international river basins

Several large African cities share at least one international river basin (Nile, Niger and Congo; Limpopo, Volta and Zambezi). The growing water demand and the discharge of wastewater from these cities pose a special challenge of managing water resources of these river basins in a coordinated manner. The interdependence of riparian states (as also the water-sharing cities) is further heightened by the high seasonal variation in river flows, and the concentration of rainfall in upstream countries.

Threat to water quality and aquatic systems

Sharing of the same water body by several African Cities pose a special threat to freshwater quality and many of the delicate aquatic ecosystems. Some of these ecosystems such as Lake Victoria are already facing severe degradation by the land-based pollution generated by urban settlements like Kisumu (Kenya), Jinja (Uganda) and Mwanza (Tanzania). The scale and intensity of this degradation is likely to increase significantly in the coming years, with expanded economic activities, industrialization and urbanization.

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