Introducing Water and Politics in Africa

Hello and welcome to my blog! 

Over the next few months, we will explore the relationship between water and politics in Africa. This brief introduction will provide some historical and geographical context to help situate our future discussions. Hydrological stability is both essential to, and deeply reliant on, political stability. In order to understand development in Africa, it is vital to understand its hydropolitical climate.

 

In its most basic sense, ‘politics’ refers to the governance of any particular place, either on an international, national or local scale. But politics also concerns the impact of different competing power dynamics. This blog explores how these competing dynamics play out within Africa.

 

Discourse surrounding African development is riddled with tropes such as ‘the corrupt politician,’ and the ‘utterly helpless Starving African’, walking across their ‘hot and dusty’ landscape (Wainaina, 2005). These tropes find their roots in colonial justifications used to validate imperial violence. However, the early development movement continued to perpetuate images of people ‘living in misery,’ struggling to support themselves in their ‘primitive and stagnant’ existence (Harry Truman, US president 1964). These patronising representations are discussed in Edward Said’s Orientalism, where he describes a ‘Western style for dominating, restructuring and having authority over the Orient’. The language in development discourse, and the realities constructed as a result of this language, are symptomatic of a much broader practise of political subjugation, disenfranchising different actors across the continent.

 

Phrases such as ‘political subjugation,’ and ‘power dynamics,’ can sound vague. Throughout this blog, I will unpick these ideas, paying close attention to how different actors on local, national, and international levels interact, who wins and who loses, and most importantly, why.

Some background

The hydrological landscape in Africa is incredibly diverse. Situated underneath two Inter-Tropical Convergence Zones, or ‘Hadley cells’, throughout much of the continent, precipitation is seasonal, resulting in the most variable river discharge in the world (McMahon, 2007). With 9% of the world’s total freshwater resources (Gaye and Tindimugaya, 2018), combined with its fastest growing population, the challenges that confront Africa seem obvious. However, “narratives of resource availability are often dominated by reductionist, physical evaluations of resources that embrace the ‘scarcity paradigm’” (Taylor et al, 2004), when in fact the main problems in water management are not ones of volume, but of distribution. Most of ‘Sub-Saharan Africa experiences “economic water scarcity” rather than “water resource scarcity”’ (Gaye and Tindimugaya, 2018). While portrayed as a physical deficiency, mismanagement and water governance are equally important. Tropes of a ‘hot and dusty’ continent oversimplify the complex reality.

 

Map of East Africa

Over the course of this blog, we will focus on water in Tanzania, where, despite being home to part of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, only 57% of the population can access clean water. The country manifests a diverse range of hydropolitics. From urban water privatisation, to large-scale dam construction, the water landscape is rapidly shifting to accommodate its growing population and increased urbanisation. I think by focusing on just one country we can take a closer look at the hydropolitical landscape that would not be possible if I chose to look at the continent as a whole.

I hope this blog helps discredit the tropes and misconceptions so often found when discussing hydro-politics in Africa, bringing deeper and more nuanced insights.

Thanks so much for reading!