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UN Video library: Africa

2011

Kenya: Water Scarcity
UN in Action, November 2011
Place: Kenya
Duration: 3min48sec
In Kenya, the International Atomic Energy Agency is helping farmers make the most of limited water resources. Innovative irrigation and nuclear techniques enable communities to grow stronger crops while protecting the environment.

Ethiopia: Drought Lingers
UN in Action, October 2011
Place: Ethiopia
Duration: 3min56sec
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recently trained pastoralists in Ethiopia to watch for warning signs of drought. Some 12 million pastoralists here travel great distance to find grazing land and water sources for their livestock daily. IFAD is counting on its investment in training to avert any future humanitarian crisis like the one unfolding now in the Horn of Africa.

Mauritania: Oasis Farmers
UN in Action, September 2011
Place: Mauritania
Duration: 3min15sec
Severe drought and desertification in Mauritania has forced many villagers to abandon their traditions and move to cities. A new project financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development is helping find local solutions with the assistance of farmers from nearby Morocco.

Africa's Lake Victoria: Turning the Tide
UNTV 21st Century, 2011
Place: Lake Victoria
Duration: 6min48sec
The struggle to access clean water and basic sanitation is intensifying as the global population ratchets up by the billion. Overcrowded makeshift settlements are springing up along the world's lakes and seas at a staggering pace, putting the health of millions under threat. This video takes you to Africa's Lake Victoria where one community is turning the tide on this alarming trend.

Morocco's solution to water scarcity
FAO
Place: Morocco
Duration: 3min30sec
Change is on the way for Morocco's approach to irrigation. Thanks to an FAO development project that brings together local farmers into water user groups, drip irrigation (letting water drip slowly to the roots of plants by means of a network of valves, pipes and emitters) is widespreading throughout the country. This means increasing yeld from crops, enhancing training programs to assist the transition, and less field work for women too.

Turning the tide on desertification in Africa
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Place: Senegal
Duration: 3min27sec
In Senegal, the Acacia project has involved the planting and managing of Acacia forests in arid lands helping combat desertification while providing life-changing benefits to local communities. With two thirds of the African continent now classified as desert or drylands and desertification affecting a quarter of the world's population, the breakthrough has the potential to transform the lives of vulnerable populations.

Benin: Rose's New Job
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), 2011
Place: Benin
Duration: 3min17sec
Benin's lakes and wetlands have been depleted of fish due to overfishing and destruction of mangroves and natural habitats. Now these lakes are being rehabilitated and fishermen and fish-sellers are finding alternative ways to make a living.

The Man Who Stopped the Desert
UNTV
Place: Burkina Faso
Duration: 1min
The story of Yacouba Sawadogo, an illiterate farmer from Burkina Faso, who managed to win the battle against the on-going desertification of the region. This is the clip of the winner of Special Jury Award in the International Forest Film Festival.

2010

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene intervention in Korogocho Slums, Nairobi, Kenya
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
Place: Kenya
Duration: 4min10sec
This video shows the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene interventions from UN-Habitat in Korogocho Slums, Nairobi, Kenya. The initiative is being implemented in 11 primary schools. Water supply and hand wash have been completed and handed over to at least six of the respective schools.

Gender Mainstreaming in Water and Sanitation in African Cities
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Gender and Water Alliance
Duration: 5min31sec
This video highlights the importance of mainstream gender in the WASH sector in Africa. It introduces the problems women face every day in relation to water and sanitation.

Creating a sanitation revolution in South Africa
High quality version
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Place: South Africa
Duration: 3min23sec
Chief Macha has been leading a quiet revolution in his community. In just two years, access to sanitation in Tonga, Southern Zambia, has doubled from 50 per cent to 100 per cent.

Transforming Kibera: David's Story
UNTV 21st Century
Place: Kenya
Duration: 6min46sec
This video captures the inspiring story of one young man: 19-year-old David Were lives in Africa's largest slum where polluted water, disease and safety are daily concerns. He tells his story in his own words.

2009

Drought prevention in Sahel
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
Place: Sahel (Mali, Senegal, Mauritania)
Duration: 4min11sec
How to prevent repeated crisis of drought, constantly menacing the people of the Sahel region? Progresses have been made to face such natural scarcity and to help bringing Sahel out of underdevelopment: construction of mini-dams or reservoirs, able to hold the water to the land; irrigation of market garden cultures, the surplus of which can be sold at the local market. As a consequence, living conditions are improving in the area and the society is getting more and more organized, so that a credit system managed by women has been successfully developing.

Unheard Voices of Poor Urban Women (Water and Sanitation)
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
Place: Kenya
Duration: 9min27sec
This video shows the problems that women in slums around the world encounter in relation to water and sanitation.

Delta Force
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Mozambique
Year: 2009
Duration: 3min35sec
This video looks at how communities are preparing themselves for increasing flooding and sea level rise caused by climate change. The Zambezi, Africa's fourth longest river is Mozambique's lifeblood. The delta is a vast area of fertile farmland. But flooding - always a regular event - is becoming more frequent. This video shows how the communities of the Zambezi are adapting.

Kenya: the effect of climate change
UNTV: UN in Action
Place: Kenya
Duration: 3min15sec
People all over the world are feeling the impact of abnormal changes in climate. Long, dry seasons and unpredictable weather threaten the livelihood of many. In Magadi, southern Kenya, a small community struggles with dwindling access to water and food.

2008

(The) Gathering Storm - Africa: Chapter 8 Drip Irrigation
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Senegal
Duration: 2min02sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Africa, this chapter shows how a project teaching drip irrigation techniques is helping farmers in Senegal to cope with increasing droughts.

(The) Gathering Storm - Africa: Chapter 6 Mountain Drought
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Lesotho
Duration: 2min32sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Africa, this video shows how prolonged drought in a mountain village in Lesotho is having devastating impacts on livelihoods.

(The) Gathering Storm - Africa: Chapter 1 Harvesting Rain
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Kenya
Duration: 3min03sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Africa, this video looks at how a rainwater harvesting system provides villagers with clean and accessible water in Kenya.

(The) Gathering Storm - Africa: Chapter 2 Escaping Floods
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Mozambique
Duration: 2min47sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Africa, this video takes a closer look at a rural village in Mozambique where floods are becoming increasingly common.

(The) Gathering Storm - Africa: Chapter 7 Flooding Rivers
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Mozambique
Duration: 3min47sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Africa, this video illustrates how floods are destroying livelihoods for people living on the banks of the Zambezi River.

(The) Gathering Storm - Africa: Chapter 8 Drip Irrigation
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
Place: Senegal
Duration: 2min02sec
Part of a series exploring the human cost of climate change in Africa, this chapter shows how a project teaching drip irrigation techniques is helping farmers in Senegal to cope with increasing droughts.

Women's water cooperative in Tanzania
UNTV: UN in Action Place: Tanzania
Duration: 2min56sec
A neighbourhood project in Dar es Salaam is giving financial independence to women while improving their community. The World Bank-funded co-operative provides freshwater at low cost to the impoverished district, and allows the entrepreneurial women a new outlook on life.

Artificial wetlands to treat wastewater in Egypt
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Place: Egypt
Duration: 4min36sec
This video shows the Lake Manzala Engineered Wetland Project, which investigated the suitability of using artificial wetlands as a low-cost alternative for treating sewage from cities, towns, and villages located on the fringes of the Nile Valley and Delta, where ample land is available.

Groundwater. A border line case
International Groundwater Resources Assessment Centre (IGRAC) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
Duration: 4min47sec
This video addresses issues around transboundary aquifers. Interventions at one side of the border have impact on the other side of the border. Tensions rise where water is scarce. Examples of Kenya and Uganda are given. The video shows also some examples of cooperative solutions in India and emphasizes the importance of collecting, analyizing and sharing data.

Howa's Chance
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Place: Eritrea
Duration: 4min30sec
Volatile global food prices are taking a toll on food security in Eritrea. This short video looks at what an IFAD-support project is doing to improve local agricultural production and the role that women play in helping the country produce more food.

2007

Playpumps make fetching water fun in Mozambique
UNTV: UN in Action
Place: Mozambique
Duration: 3min37sec
A 'playpump' is a device to extract underground water powered by a merry-go-round. It provides fun for rural children while supplying cleaner water and improving hygiene. In Mozambique, these recently installed pumps also unburden women and girls from the task of fetching water from faraway wells that are often unclean.

Kibera Kenya: Understanding Small Scale Service Providers
World Bank Water and Sanitation Program (WSP)
Place: Kenya
Duration: 9min41sec
This film follows Patrick Mburu, a small scale provider of sanitation services in Africa's largest informal settlement.

Sanitation in Ethiopia
World Bank, Reuters
Place: Ethiopia
Duration: 6min16sec
The United Nations reports that most Ethiopians do not have access to proper sanitation. This video describes a creative way of introducing the concept and need of basic sanitation in rural Ethiopia.

2006

Water management in Zanzibar
UNTV: UN in Action
Place: Zanzibar
Duration: 3min26sec
Most of Zanzibar's inhabitants are without running water. In some areas, the water is too salty for human consumption. Uncontrolled urban growth is part of the problem. Tens of thousands of tourists visit the springs outside Stone Town, the main source of Zanzibar's water supply, placing significant strain on an already outdated water system. This video shows that communities are now forming cooperatives, with assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), to bring piped water to households.

Beyond scarcity: power, poverty and the global water crisis
UNDP
Place: Nairobi, Kenya
Duration: 5min21sec
Kevin Watkins, Director of the UNDP Human Development Report (2006) presents the HDR of 2006, illustrating the state of art of some areas of Nairobi. The presence of a huge toilet en plein air made of a mix of plastic trashes and human excrements menaces the safeness of the water reaching the residential areas around it. The Report demonstrates how such contamination underlines the inevitable link between access to safe water, sanitation, human dignity and education of children.