#1- Setting the Scene

Hello and welcome to my blog about hydropolitics in Africa!

Considering that you’ve clicked on this blog post I imagine you’re just as interested in the relationship between politics and water as I am. For those of you who know little about this topic, don’t fret- I am just as new to hydropolitics as you are, which is why over the course of the next few months I’d like you to join me on my journey of exploring this complex concept. 

Before getting into why I am interested in hydropolitics and setting the geographical stage for my future posts, I want to express my thoughts on Africa's representation (or rather misrepresentation). A representation sin particularly common in Western discourse is the false portrayal of Africa as one huge place; a country imagined as ‘hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving’. However, Africa is not a country and consists of more than just endless stretches of prairies! (if you don’t believe me check out the video below).

In order to evade such stereotypical generalisations of Africa, I will direct my focus towards the Southern tip of Africa and only address Africa as ‘Africa’ when I really do mean the continent. Other than keeping an eye out for specificity, I will also try my best to exclude any forms of performative allyship and sotto voice. That is, instead of viewing development in Southern Africa through the lense of performativity and using it as a means to further my personal moral configurations I will put distance between my blog and the idea of empty advocacy. 

But why Southern Africa?

Having no personal ties to this area, my interest stems more from a place of curiosity related to the climatology and hydrological landscape of Southern Africa. Due to the changes in solar insolation and the north-south displacement of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) precipitation in this region is highly seasonal and variable. In fact, interannual rainfall variability has increased since 1970, adding pressure to the already drought prone areas in Southern Africa, particularly ​​South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe (Figure 1). As a result, this area has one of the lowest conversion rates of rainfall-to-runoff in the world, impacting both surface river discharges and groundwater recharge to aquifers. Thus, it becomes clear that the sustainable management, governance and development of water supply is of the utmost importance, especially with the rapidly increasing water demand and uncertainty caused by climate change. After all, water is not just needed for drinking and sanitary purposes, but is found to be crucial in furthering ‘responsible economic growth and poverty alleviation’.

Figure 1. Precipitation in Southern Africa

However, don’t misunderstand: I am not trying to sell the scarcity paradigm to you. Instead I’d like to acknowledge that most of Sub-Saharan Africa is confronted with an ‘economic water scarcity’ in lieu of a ‘water resource scarcity’. In other words, it’s often not a question of volume but that of distribution. This is where hydropolitics comes in; inadequate water management, provisioning and conflicts are inherently linked to politics, which is why this blog will focus on the governance surrounding water resources in Southern Africa. I will specifically examine the notion of water wars, transboundary aquifers, dam management and the sanitation in Windhoek all whilst looking at the historical contexts of these debates and how they fit into the wider scheme of water and development.

I hope you’ll enjoy this blog. Until the next post!