Water Scarcity in North Africa

The previous post laid the foundations of this blog. Today’s post will introduce the actual topic of the blog, Water and Politics in North Africa. 

The water-supply paradox in North Africa

I decided to focus this bog on North Africa particularly because the region’s imbalance between its water supply and water resources caught my attention. In North Africa, 92% of the population has access to safe drinking water while only 61% of the population has access to safe drinking water in Sub-Saharan Africa (UN, 2014). 

I first assumed that this disparity was due to the presence of more water resources to draw on in North Africa. However, water metrics describe the region as very water-scarce compared to other African states. 

For example, the Water Stress Index (WSI) categorises only four African countries as Absolute Water Stressed, which is the highest level of water-scarcity. Three of the four Absolute Water Stressed countries are North African - Algeria, Libya and Tunisia- (Taylor and Damkjaer, 2017). Another metric, the Water To Availability (WTA) classifies only 6 states in the continent as the most severely water-stressed countries: all of them are North African (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt and Sudan) (Fig.1)  (Taylor and Damkjaer, 2017). 

Figure 1: Water scarcity defined by the WTA metric (Taylor and Damkjaer, 2017)

The paradox here is that although North Africa provides water to the majority of its population unlike other regions in Africa, North Africa lacks the most water on the continent. This water-supply paradox piqued my curiosity and now hopefully yours too. How does North Africa compensate for its water shortage in a way that other African countries don’t?

Possible explanations to the 'water-paradox'

I investigate here some possible explanations for North Africa’s capacity to better provide water to its population despite the little water resources.

 

A first plausible explanation to this water-paradox is that the water metrics used to quantify water resources are limited. Taylor and Damkajaer (2017) highlight that the WSI and WTA do not include underground water resources in their measurements. However, North Africa draws most of its water from sedimentary basins. North Africa and neighbouring countries indeed share six transboundary aquifers (Fig. 2) (Gaye and Tindimugaya, 2019; Gueye et al., 2005).

Figure 2: Transboundary Aquifers in North Africa (Ganoulis, 2007)

 

A second explanation to this imbalance between water resources and water supply is that North Africa strongly relies on large-scale side projects to compensate for its water shortages. Because the countries over-exploit their water resources, they counterweigh the lack of water and invest in projects of desalination, dam construction, and water imports; something other regions in Africa cannot afford (Sowers et al., 2011). For instance, the next post will explore how North Africa import the most virtual water in the continent (Gueye et al., 2005). 

  

Politics

The water shortage in North Africa and its attempt to compensate for it have political implications. If we consider the shortage of the water resources, the effects of climate change, and the growing population that the continent faces, it is not sufficient nor sustainable for states to respond to the water challenge by tapping resources in large scale side projects (Cairncross, 2003, Sowers et al., 2011).

Development actors have taken different positions towards the way governance has adapted in the region. A World Bank study (2007) stated that water management policies and institutions in the Middle East and North Africa were more insightful compared to those of other developing countries. On the other hand, water experts in North Africa have demanded better conservation and management of water resources (Sowers et al., 2011). 

 

This blog will therefore investigate how governments in North Africa have responded to water-scarcity, and what the implications of these responses are.