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

momentum towards addressing issues ofwater risk in Africa;(d) Governance in the water sector is improving,but there remains major constraints ofcapacity weaknesses, exacerbated by the humanresource tragedy of HIV/AIDS;(e) A growing trend towards regionalizationwhich bodes well for enhanced transnationalcooperation in addressing water issues.To enhance the chances of success, any successfulapproach to meeting Africa’s water challengeswill have to be based on principles which Vordzorgbe,S. D, (2003) also lists as follows:(a) Meeting human and ecosystem needs;(b) Comprehensive water resource developmentand management, including givinghigher priority to non-structural means ofmeeting demand;(c) Giving a key role to science and technologyin water resource development and use,particularly smaller scale local technical innovations;(d) Putting emphasis on disaster risk reduction,outlook, framework and institutionalmechanisms, including increasing the importanceassigned to comprehensive andcumulative risk assessment, and, risk transferand pooling mechanisms;(e) Meeting stakeholder interests through participation,cooperation, coordination, decentralization;(f ) Ensuring a knowledge-based developmentand management of the institutionalframework for the water sector, includingmore frequent application of economicprinciples;(g) Implementing sound overall economic andsocial development policies in recognitionof the strong role of other sectors in promotingwater policies;(h) A conducive foreign policy; and(i) National political will.Lest we forgot - East Africa also felt effectsof the Asian tsunamiThe most powerful earthquake in decades generatedthe Indian Ocean tsunami of 26 Decemberwhich killed more than 150,000 people andmade millions homeless in Sri Lanka, Indonesia,Thailand and India and believed to be the mostdestructive tsunami in history. These killer wavesof the tsunami travelled as far as 5,000 kilometersto strike Africa’s eastern coastline with sufficientforce to kill people and destroy property.More than 300 people were reportedly killedon the continent - 298 in Somalia, 10 in Tanzaniaand one in Kenya. Three people were reporteddead in the Seychelles where damage wasalso done to roads, bridges and ports estimatedat $30m. In Somalia, the worst affected countryalong the east coast of Africa, especially thevillage of Harfun near the northern tip of thecountry, some 80 per cent of the homes and allof the water sources and sanitation facilities weredestroyed (UNICEF; 2005). Also, according tothe United Nations Office for the Coordinationof Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA-Somalia),a season of drought, affecting the Sool Plateauand parts of South Central Somalia, was the keyhumanitarian emergency in 2004.The cumulative effects of four years of poor rainfallin the Sool plateau and surrounding areas inSomaliland and Puntland caused massive livestocklosses, rendered many pastoralists destituteand resulted in increased vulnerability and furtherdisplacement (UNICEF; 2005).In countries stretching from the Horn of Africa,down to Tanzania and out into the IndianOcean, lowland flooding and irregularly fast tidalchanges were reported. In the Seychelles, low-lyingcoastal roads were flooded by a 2-metre (sixfoot)surge and power was knocked out fromhundreds of homes. At the airport, fire brigadeswere forced to wash dozens of fish off of the runwayeach time high tides sent water crashing ontothe airfield. Residents and tourists were warnedto be ready to move to higher ground if need be.Beaches at tourist resorts around Kenya’s coastalMANAGING RISKS247