African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

electricity, and solar power. This range of choicesreflects the country’s high level of economicdevelopment relative to other African countries.Traditional fuel consumption is about 66.52 percent of the total energy consumption in Africa(Energy in Africa, 1999).Within Africa, some regions consume more“traditional” fuel than others. North Africa, forinstance, consumes very little biomass, mainlydue to lack of wood in the desert climate. Centraland East Africa, on the other hand, consumelarge amounts of biomass. Generally, the consumptionof “traditional” fuels is highly labourintensive, inefficient, polluting, and destructiveto the environment, resulting in deforestationand desertification.Fossil Fuel ConsumptionEvery African country consumes at least somepetroleum, regardless of the availability of domesticsupplies. Fewer than half of Africancountries have a domestic refining capacity, andmany of these that do have very small facilities.Oil, as a relatively easily transportable and usable(”fungible”) fuel, is consumed throughoutAfrica. Coal and gas, on the other hand, are notas fungible as oil. Their use, therefore, dependsheavily on the availability of either domestic ornearby resources and the extent to which these resources- along with the necessary transportationinfrastructure - have been developed. Natural gasis consumed almost exclusively by countries withgas reserves/production. Algeria, Egypt, Libya,and Tunisia (all in North Africa), which togetherwith Nigeria (in West Africa), account for 94 percent of total African natural gas consumption.The absence of natural gas consumption in mostAfrican countries results largely from a lack ofpipeline infrastructure. This, in turn, is a resultof several factors, including cost, terrain and politicalfactors (Energy in Africa, 1999).HARNESSING ENERGY FOR DEVELOPMENTRatio of Fossil Energy to Total Energy Consumption by CountrySource: Energy Information Administration / US Department of Energy. http://www.nationmaster.com217