Reflection

When I first started this blog, I was under the impression that the African water crisis was uniform across the supposedly “dry” continent. As naive as that sounds, I had never considered that there may actually be parts of Africa which do indeed have sufficient water to satisfy the population. No TV appeals ever show clips of the tropical rainforests in Tanzania, nor the wetland areas such as those in the Hadejia-Jama’are river basin. For me, the most surprising thing was how much freshwater parts of Africa has in groundwater reserves. If tapped into, it has the potential to overcome much of the continents water crisis.

The problem is not so much a physical scarcity of water, as it is an economic and political issue of access.

Learning that many biotechnology companies capitalize on the food crisis in Africa has definitely changed my opinion on whether the use of GM seeds should be used to increase crop yields in arid climates. Whilst the development of drought-resistant crops means that harvests are less likely to fail, the dependence that this creates for farmers on international corporations is, to me, immoral. As with the issue of irrigation schemes, I think that the smaller, more community-based practices are most likely to succeed. The level of innovation that exists all across Africa out of a necessity to grow food is inspiring. Cultivating mushrooms in old rubbish bags may sound bizarre, but is infact ingenious. The Future of Hope’s mushroom project in Zimbabwe kills two birds with one stone. It not only teaches young orphans how to grow their own food using limited water, but in doing so it also provides a scientific education which may lead on to further study. As the provision of water is clearly an economic issue, the more people are educated and enter paid employment the better.

There is no denying that climate change is happening, and that already arid and semi-arid climates such as those across Africa are most likely to suffer the most. However, contrary to what some may believe, Africa is not a lost cause. There are sufficient resources to change the situation in Africa, and to increase both water and food security.