Interview with water expert Stephen Donkor

Stephen Donkor is an adviser on sustainable development at the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and is coordinating a major pan-African conference on water utilisation this month. Here he tells IRIN of problems and plans for the continent. QUESTION: Can you describe current water management in Africa? ANSWER: Essentially it is a matter of supply and demand. In terms of supply there is a lot of disparity across the continent. You can describe it as very dry in the south and the middle has excess water. So from our point of view it is not just the availability of water, it is the distribution of water - where there is water, how it is managed, and that determines whether we are going to have problems. Q: There are countries like Ethiopia where water is not utilised. Is that common? A: Yes and no. Africa is so diverse. Ethiopia has a lot of water, whether it is utilised or not depends on what for. In our Africa Water vision 2025 we have defined various challenges of water and in Ethiopia people say it is not utilised because it is not utilised for agriculture or for drinking water. It may be utilised for nature – de facto. So it depends on how you are looking at it. Q: What are the consequences of not acting now on improving water resources? A: We need to act now - it is almost too late. We need to put our money where our mouth is. The consequences of not acting now will vary. In some places we know the burden of disease, the attempt to cure disease, cost more than to provide clean water that prevents disease in the first place. We take water for granted and it is time to stop taking it for granted. It is not infinitely accessible to us and it has an impact of every area of our lives. I recommend that people look at the challenges – it is not about water as a commodity, it is about human livelihoods. Whether it is food, health, ecology, energy, and industry – it is all related to water. Africa will never develop unless we solve these problems. Q: Will you address disappearing water resources like Lake Chad? A: During the conference there is going to be a caucus of chief executives of all the river and lake basin organisations. What this will be doing is to look at the trans-boundary nature of some of these water resources. When we talk about trans-boundary, everybody talks about the Nile, but there are about 80 other lakes and rivers. We don’t even mention aquifers which need to be managed. And Lake Chad is a very big problem. Between 10 and 15 million people’s livelihoods depend on that lake. If you see how it has shrunk over the last 20 or 30 years something needs to be done about it. Q: If people have known for two or three decades, why isn’t anything being done. A: In February next year we are holding a workshop on inter-basin water transfer. That means taking water from one basin to solve problems in another basin. This has been practised in Asia and America, in Colorado and without the river Colorado there would be no Californian economy. When it comes to Lake Chad there have been plans but it comes down to one thing – there was no financing to execute the plans that have been there for a long time. Q: Is there a vision of a continent-wide water grid? A: Again we come to the question of transfer of water resources. In Holland all the rivers and canals are all intertwined and they all serve an economic purpose. It is a dream but it is possible. Look at southern Africa. I remember when the Lesotho Highland water project started. This is a small country, with a lot of water, a small population next door to neighbouring South Africa with a huge population and industry and the logic was there to work together. Of course there are problems, environmental and others, to be considered. But I think all over Africa we are starting to see beyond nations, seeing water not as a national issue and going beyond that to the region. Then many of the transfers may be feasible in the long run and they would generate in parts of Africa a drastic economic turnaround. Q: Where will you get the money for these grand schemes across Africa? A: We realise in Africa, if you look at the budget of most African countries, what is devoted to water, or water related sectors, water is not even mentioned in most poverty reduction strategies. If African governments are prepared to commit a little of what they have, I think they have a better chance of raising both grants and even private sector support because some of these projects cannot be written off as charity. They can have very strong economic impact and bring good rates of return. The Lesotho project – they call it white gold. Q: Are there plans you will be discussing for specific rivers? A: We hope right now that every sub region - I know southern Africa, central Africa and western Africa - have brought concrete plans to be discussed at this conference and take input from civil society. We hope we can transform that into a work programme for the new ministerial council on water in Africa. We hope the ministerial council is going to be a principal organ of the African Union so far as African water resources are concerned.