Welcome to my new blog!
I’m Max, a third-year student at UCL currently studying water and development in Africa.
The aim of this blog is to provide a platform in which various elements of the water-food nexus in Africa can be discussed and collaboratively engaged with in line with my own knowledge development. Due to the multi-faceted and diverse nature of the topic, this blog by no means sets out to provide a complete overview of the water and food theme, instead opting to focus on key topics and case-studies to investigate links between water and food and how these might change.
Water as a resource is fundamental to the sustenance of life, both in its direct consumption and indirect use to produce food (Taylor 2004). My employment of the term food refers to ‘something that people and animals eat, or plants absorb, to keep them alive’ as per the Cambridge English Dictionary. The crucial role of water in the production of food is highlighted through the term ‘virtual water’, defined as ‘the volume of water required to produce a commodity or service’ (Hoekstra and Chapagain 2007: 36). Virtual water is often taken for granted, with sustenance foods like rice taking 2300litres of water per kilo to produce. Also when considering that an estimated 19% of the global water footprint is exported as virtual water (Hoekstra and Mekonnen 2012) it is likely virtual water will become a prominent theme throughout the development of my blog.
With the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aiming to ‘achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all [by 2030] (6.1)’ and ‘end hunger and ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all [by 2030] (2.1)’ (UN 2015) it is clear water and food are key issues. Sub-Saharan Africa is an intriguing focal point for my blog for a number of reasons. Firstly it has the lowest proportions of national populations with access to safe water (WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (2017)) and unsurprisingly as a result some of the lowest per-capita production rates for food (Funk and Brown 2009). Arguably detrimental to progress towards UN sustainable goal two, chronic undernourishment rose by over 20% in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2015 and 2016 (FAO, 2017). Understanding the links between food production and water in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa is vital if it is to support its rapidly urbanising and growing populations.
Whilst the link between water and food appears obvious it is in fact extremely intricate, with limited physical access to water, water inefficient agricultural techniques and climate and soil features all straining this relationship. Access to water in Africa is consistently plagued with reductionist narratives of the scarcity paradigm, suggesting that Africa is dry and has a fundamental shortage of freshwater, disregarding other physical, social, political and economic factors controlling access. Whilst there are hundreds of millions of Africans in so called water scarcity (<1000 m3 /person/year) it is important recognise that this scarcity threshold is extremely high and fundamentally misrepresents the water situation both geographically and physically, something this blog acknowledges from the outset.
The global distribution of freshwater withdrawals is dominated by irrigated agricultural land, however only 4% of crop land is irrigated in Sub-Saharan Africa which is reflected in the ~20m3 annual per capita freshwater withdrawals in green water dependant countries such as Uganda as compared with the 1000m3 threshold (Siebert et al. 2010). Furthermore, Africa as a continent does have sufficient water resources, just in other forms than easily accessible surface water. Groundwater for example covers much of Africa (See Figure 1.) and offers a substantial natural freshwater supply, however many lack accesses as a result of undeveloped infrastructure.
Over the coming weeks, I look forward to developing this blog in line with my own research around the topic of water and food in Sub-Saharan-Africa. As I would like the development of my knowledge and engagement with readers to guide this blog I am hesitant to create an exhaustive list of areas I will cover, nevertheless some key topics I am hoping to investigate include: small-scale adaptive farming practices, the potential role of groundwater in a green revolution as well as discussing the potential for alternative methods of sufficiency including trading in virtual water.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to my next post!
Max
I’m Max, a third-year student at UCL currently studying water and development in Africa.
The aim of this blog is to provide a platform in which various elements of the water-food nexus in Africa can be discussed and collaboratively engaged with in line with my own knowledge development. Due to the multi-faceted and diverse nature of the topic, this blog by no means sets out to provide a complete overview of the water and food theme, instead opting to focus on key topics and case-studies to investigate links between water and food and how these might change.
Water as a resource is fundamental to the sustenance of life, both in its direct consumption and indirect use to produce food (Taylor 2004). My employment of the term food refers to ‘something that people and animals eat, or plants absorb, to keep them alive’ as per the Cambridge English Dictionary. The crucial role of water in the production of food is highlighted through the term ‘virtual water’, defined as ‘the volume of water required to produce a commodity or service’ (Hoekstra and Chapagain 2007: 36). Virtual water is often taken for granted, with sustenance foods like rice taking 2300litres of water per kilo to produce. Also when considering that an estimated 19% of the global water footprint is exported as virtual water (Hoekstra and Mekonnen 2012) it is likely virtual water will become a prominent theme throughout the development of my blog.
With the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aiming to ‘achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all [by 2030] (6.1)’ and ‘end hunger and ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food for all [by 2030] (2.1)’ (UN 2015) it is clear water and food are key issues. Sub-Saharan Africa is an intriguing focal point for my blog for a number of reasons. Firstly it has the lowest proportions of national populations with access to safe water (WHO-UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (2017)) and unsurprisingly as a result some of the lowest per-capita production rates for food (Funk and Brown 2009). Arguably detrimental to progress towards UN sustainable goal two, chronic undernourishment rose by over 20% in Sub-Saharan Africa between 2015 and 2016 (FAO, 2017). Understanding the links between food production and water in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa is vital if it is to support its rapidly urbanising and growing populations.
Whilst the link between water and food appears obvious it is in fact extremely intricate, with limited physical access to water, water inefficient agricultural techniques and climate and soil features all straining this relationship. Access to water in Africa is consistently plagued with reductionist narratives of the scarcity paradigm, suggesting that Africa is dry and has a fundamental shortage of freshwater, disregarding other physical, social, political and economic factors controlling access. Whilst there are hundreds of millions of Africans in so called water scarcity (<1000 m3 /person/year) it is important recognise that this scarcity threshold is extremely high and fundamentally misrepresents the water situation both geographically and physically, something this blog acknowledges from the outset.
The global distribution of freshwater withdrawals is dominated by irrigated agricultural land, however only 4% of crop land is irrigated in Sub-Saharan Africa which is reflected in the ~20m3 annual per capita freshwater withdrawals in green water dependant countries such as Uganda as compared with the 1000m3 threshold (Siebert et al. 2010). Furthermore, Africa as a continent does have sufficient water resources, just in other forms than easily accessible surface water. Groundwater for example covers much of Africa (See Figure 1.) and offers a substantial natural freshwater supply, however many lack accesses as a result of undeveloped infrastructure.
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| Figure 1. A map of estimated groundwater storage across the African continent (MacDonald et al. 2012) |
Over the coming weeks, I look forward to developing this blog in line with my own research around the topic of water and food in Sub-Saharan-Africa. As I would like the development of my knowledge and engagement with readers to guide this blog I am hesitant to create an exhaustive list of areas I will cover, nevertheless some key topics I am hoping to investigate include: small-scale adaptive farming practices, the potential role of groundwater in a green revolution as well as discussing the potential for alternative methods of sufficiency including trading in virtual water.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to my next post!
Max
Really interesting and clear coverage of the overall topic, I look forward to reading further!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading Henry!
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