Page 10 - CIWA-AR24

Introduction

Introduction

ustainable water resources Climate change will worsen the situation of the challenges of transboundary
S
management and development is by increasing uncertainty about water waters requires countries and the
critical for economic growth and availability and the occurrence of global development community to go
poverty reduction in Africa. Adequate extreme weather events. As water beyond traditional approaches and
management of water resources can help security declines, women and other embrace smarter ways for managing
build resilience against a changing marginalized groups will be and investing in the water sector.
climate, fragility, and other challenges. disproportionately affected by the
Across Africa, many competing demands volatility of food and energy prices and The CIWA program’s objective is to
include supplying multi-use household will increasingly bear the brunt of strengthen cooperative management
water, irrigating crops to address hunger, disasters, including heightened and development of international
and developing hydropower to meet the vulnerability to food insecurity, waters in Sub-Saharan Africa and to
continent’s increasing electricity needs. deepening poverty, and increased assist in achieving sustainable
Africa is endowed with a generous supply exposure to violence and displacement. climate-resilient growth. To
of water and natural water storage. accomplish this, CIWA supports the
However, the real challenge facing many Despite these challenges, the institutions that manage and develop
African women and men is having water opportunities for harnessing Africa’s the basins, catalyzes and enables
where they need it, when they need it, water potential are tremendous. Less transformative water-related
and of good quality. Many countries have than six percent of its cultivated land is investments, and facilitates
inadequate systems in place to monitor, currently irrigated, and no more than information gathering and sharing on
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regulate, store, and use water. 8-10 percent of its hydropower the benefits of cooperation. As with all
Complicating matters, most rivers, lakes, resources has been developed. investment preparation projects,
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and aquifers cross country borders. In Transboundary cooperation can information sharing efforts, and
fact, all countries on the mainland increase the overall value of shared institutional strengthening work, the
continent touch at least one international waters and improve regional payoffs impact of any support provided may
river basin, which collectively are home to through, for example, increased benefits not be fully realized for many years.
nearly 65 percent of Sub-Saharan Africa’s of power distribution via regional power CIWA often works upstream of
population. There are 60 international pools, reduction of flood and drought investment implementation and, in
river basins within Africa, covering 62 risk via coordinated operation of water many basins, has made long-term
percent of the continent’s area, and five of storage, protection of environmental commitments to strengthening
these are shared by eight or more services and livelihoods that rely on capacity in FCV-affected contexts,
countries (Congo, Niger, Nile, Zambezi, and water resources, and improvement of which is required for progress. CIWA’s
Lake Chad). The five largest river basins the sustainability of shared waters. transboundary and multi-basin
1
cover 52 percent of the area of SSA. approach makes it unique in the
Collaboration on technical, development field. It works with
Africa has the highest population environmental, financial, and regional river basin organizations,
growth rate of any region in the world, political aspects of transboundary national governments, civil society
and the population is predicted to water management and groups, and other stakeholders to
increase to 1.8 billion by 2040. Africa’s development can help countries strengthen information and institutions
urban population is projected to double overcome regional challenges and and prepare investments. CIWA is
between 2000 and 2030. High rates of seize much needed opportunities. structured to be responsive and
urbanization mean increased For example, in the Nile Basin, flexible in enabling African countries to
competition for water from the water-energy cooperation could save promote sustainable, climate-resilient
agricultural, industrial, and municipal total costs over more isolated growth that contributes to reducing
sectors. By 2040, it is expected that the development projects and limited extreme poverty and promoting shared
continent’s food demand will double, trade in energy. CIWA is using such prosperity in an equitable and inclusive
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energy demand will quadruple, and opportunities for cooperative manner. CIWA balances support for
water demand will increase to five times management and development to institutional development and
that of today, putting stress on water support riparian countries in Africa to information systems with assistance to
sources in general and particularly unlock the productive potential of help riparian governments improve the
impacting poor and vulnerable people. international waters. The complexity quality of investments.

1 Wolf, A. T., Natharius, J. A., Danielson, J. J., Ward, B. S. & Pender, J. K. (1999) International River Basins of the World. Int. J. Water Resour. Devel. 15(4), 387–427
2 FAO. 2020. https://www.fao.org/sustainability/news/detail/en/c/1274219.
3 International Hydropower Association. 2023. https://www.hydropower.org/region-profiles/africa
05 4 Etichia et al. Energy trade tempers Nile water conflict. Nature Water, 2024; 2 (4): 337