Water and Food in Africa: An Introduction

Bvumbwe research station in Malawi

Throughout this blog, I will be tackling the interconnected issues of food and water and problematizing their provisioning in an integrated fashion, in relation to development challenges in sub-Saharan Africa.

Globally, agriculture accounts for 70 percent of all water withdrawn from rivers and aquifers; adequate water quality and availability are essential components of sustainable and resilient food systems. In turn, establishing food security is a vital component of successful development (Vilakazi, Nyirenda & Vellemu, 2019). This notion is reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Goals, created as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and increase the quality of life of the global population. Vitally, SDG 2 seeks to end hunger, achieve food security, improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture and SDG 6 seeks to ensure access to water and sanitation for all. 

These are cross-cutting issues in Geography

We have entered the Anthropocene epoch, in which human and physical environments and the interactions that occur both within and between them are interdependent and signal the emergence of a "post-natural globe" (Castree, 2019: 37). Consequently, no part of the earth is now untouched by human influence of some kind. The following video gives an example of how water and food challenges in sub-Saharan Africa can be tackled when framed by an understanding of the Anthropocene. It gives examples from UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme (IHP), arguing that droughts, for example, are now inextricably entangled with human actions, cultures and responses and thus solutions need to be sensitive and adapted to human as well as local physical factors. 

 

Past research into water security issues has been limited by a lack of understanding of human influences as driving actors of change. The concept of "water scarcity", for example, has been criticised for encapsulating only the physical availability of water and not accounting for barriers to access including unequal infrastructure distribution. There are calls for epistemological and methodological pluralism within geographical scholarship of water. A critical geography of water has been conceptualised to "reform" and "regenerate" knowledge and transcend the traditional geographical boundaries of the human/physical geography divide. This idea can be linked to food and development as well under the umbrella of Human Ecology, which has emerged as the study of humans and environment. Therefore, this blog will probe the issues of water, food and development in sub-Saharan Africa using a human ecology approach by considering both the wellbeing of 'people' and 'place'.

These issues are complex and challenging

Exploring water, food and development in sub-Saharan Africa is a bit like opening Pandora’s box. There are a host of spatial and temporal complexities within different physical and human systems involving people and the resources they use. The spectrum of physical conditions that exist across Africa's nine biomes, which will vary even more with the effects of climate change, adds complication to the safe provisioning of water and food. It makes the need for climate-resilient food production systems even more pressing. 

On top of this, the interventions of external forces have influenced food and water security issues in the region. This ranges from the impacts of colonial forces who fundamentally changed agricultural production, the legacies of which remain imprinted in sub-Saharan Africa's geographical landscape, to the contemporary involvement of institutions like the World Bank and other private and public actors. Moreover, access to food and water is profoundly differentiated along the lines of race and ethnicity, indigeneity, gender, poverty and other inequalities, and in rural or urban contexts. 

Ultimately, this blog aims to explore how water and food issues can be framed in sub-Saharan Africa. Are they rights-based issues best placed in the hands of the public sector? Entrepreneurial opportunities requiring the expertise and financial input of a range of private actors/institutions? Or community-based issues in need of bottom-up solutions that draw on existing local knowledge systems? Lets find out...