UN Chronicle Issue 1 2001: Managing Water for African Cities

By Yima Sen

"Pure water! Pure water!" scream street children who hawk small cellophane bags of water as a car crawls through the humid heat and congested traffic of Lagos-Africa's most populous city and the world's sixth, with more than 13 million inhabitants today and which could become the third in 2025 with about 23 million. It is also the principal city of Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, with about 120 million people. Chilled water sold to motorists in this metropolis is tempting even if one is not sure of its purity.

Lagos, on the west coast of Africa, merely epitomizes a continental problem of how to cope with the supply of water and basic services in Africa's sprouting cities. With an urbanization rate of about 5 per cent, Africa is the fastest urbanizing continent, beating Asia to second place. In fact, about 40 per cent of Africans live in cities today.

In East Africa, Kenya has been hit by a strangulating drought since last year, which has compelled the rationing of water and power in the capital city of Nairobi and other towns. Water scarcity threatens the health and economy of the whole country.

UNCHS Photo
The world is increasingly appreciating the real value of water to life as a scarce commodity that must be conserved and properly used. Since 1977, when the United Nations convened the International Conference on Water in Mar del Plata, the United Nations system has sustained its efforts to keep the problem of water on the agenda of critical human concerns. The emergence and activism of international water organizations, such as the World Water Council and the Global Water Partnership, have also helped to amplify the need to take the problem more seriously.

Nowhere in the world is this problem better manifested than in African cities. By the year 2025, about 20 out of 29 sub-Saharan African countries will face water stress. And this water scarcity is related to a number of factors:

Increase in city needs as cities expand and have to source further afield or dig deeper for water. Dakar, Johannesburg and Nairobi, for example, have overexploited local resources and are forced to convey water from 200 to 600 kilometres away. Abidjan, Addis Ababa and Lusaka are virtually over-abstracting the ground aquifers as they dig deeper for water.

Urbanization actually correlates with water stress as per capita water availability also reduces.

Shared international water basins present a threat of political conflicts or even water wars. About nine African countries, for example, are dependent on the River Nile as a source of water for various uses.

Water pollution from city wastes and environmental degradation in the catchments are a major threat to water quality and quantity.

When the United Nations System-wide Initiative on Africa (UNSIA) was launched in 1996 to address Africa's peculiar development needs, including food security, governance, education, health and information technology, water was one of the key areas of concern. In the Cape Town Declaration of 1997, African Ministers called on their Governments to work with partners to tackle the water crises in African cities. As a result, a United Nations multi—agency programme—Water for African Cities-was launched, initially funded by the Turner Foundation. It is currently being implemented by UNCHS (Habitat) in seven demonstration cities: Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Accra, Ghana; Dakar, Senegal; Johannesburg, South Africa; Lusaka, Zambia; and Nairobi, Kenya.

Point of Fact

The poor pay more for water. In Nairobi, residents connected to municipal supplies pay on average 30 cents per cubic metre of water, while the poor have to pay private vendors up to six times that price—$2. In Port au Prince, Haiti, residents pay $1, while the urban poor pay up to 16 times that amount.

The programme's focal emphasis of improving demand management, curbing water pollution and increasing awareness about water management and conservation is helping to shift attention away from a tendency towards capital-intensive investments in the water sector. It is also helping to clarify water issues and improve awareness on possible solutions.

As the water problem gains more attention, prominent voices are reiterating the need for remedial interventions. According to Anna Tibaijuka, Executive Director of UNCHS (Habitat): "Water is being used more quickly than it is being replenished and water wastage is one of the major causes of shortage in our cities and human settlements, since about 40 per cent of treated water is wasted."

This is very much the case in Nairobi where 30 per cent of the population lacks access to treated water, of which 50 per cent is wasted and if saved could adequately supply the two other major Kenyan cities of Kisumu and Mombasa.

In Zambia, the Minister for Local Government and Housing, Ackson Sejani, has confirmed that wastage is as high as 50 to 70 per cent in the country's cities and towns. Already, activities of the Water for African Cities programme have reduced water losses to 45 per cent in the Lusaka pilot project.

Other issues that confront the quest for improved water supply in African cities are improved access for the urban poor and peri-urban communities, the role of women, the traditional water managers, water management, and billing and pricing systems. In short, governance, which is cognizant of promoting community participation in water management and a private-public-civil sector partnership on water issues, is essential.

Chart by UN Chronicle based on UNCHS (Habitat) Urban Indicators Programme

In the final analysis, it may well be that as demand management of water gains acceptance in African cities, awareness-raising will need to be intensified, as suggested by Mahmoud Abu-Zeid, Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation and Chairman of the World Water Council. This would need to be complemented by public water education.

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Yima Sen is Public Information Officer for the Managing Water for African Cities Programme, based in Nairobi, Kenya.