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

VALUING WATERThe facts given in the other chapters of thepresent report show that the water resources ofAfrica have yet to be sufficiently harnessed tomeet basic water needs for domestic, agricultural,industrial and other uses, including energyproduction, while many African countries are alreadyfacing water stress and environmental degradation.The endemic poverty in which the majorityof Africans live is made manifest in theirpoor access to water and sanitation which resultsmainly from the low level of water resources development.Lack of access to good quality drinkingwater and sanitation, leading to environmentalhealth hazards, contribute largely to the verylow life expectancy in many African countries.In fact, life expectancy in more than two thirdsof African countries is below the regional averageof about 52 years. However, the report of theWHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme(2004) shows that some progress has been madein rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa where 69million more people (over 9 per cent) gainedaccess to water supply during the period 1990-2002. The number of people served in urban areasduring the same period increased by 82 million,but the percentage difference was offset by thedemographic growth in towns which is hastenedby urban-rural migration. Northern Africa hasmade some progress in rural areas by increasingcoverage by 2 per cent (from 82 per cent to 84per cent). Sub-Saharan Africa too made someprogress, with the percentage of the populationserved with improved sanitation facilities duringthe period 1990-2002 increasing by 4 per cent(figs. 5.24 and 5.25). About 85 million morepeople gained access to sanitation, most of themin urban areas where the increase was over 57million. All these increases were drained awayin terms of percentage by the huge demographicincrease of over 181 million people (ibid).In sub-Saharan Africa, where the rural areas accountfor about 70 per cent of the total population,crop and animal production, fisheries andforestry activities are direct sources of food forfamily consumption or sources of income withwhich people can buy food. Increasing and diversifyingthese food production sources is a prerequisitefor improved household food security.According to FAO statistics, Africa’s per capitaagricultural and food production indices were99 and 100, respectively, in 2000, much lowerthan the total production indices of 127 and 128.In East and Southern Africa, for example, thenumber of food insecure people almost doubledfrom 22 million in the early 1980s to 39 millionin the early 1990s. The estimated rate of agriculturaloutput increase needed to achieve food securityin the continent is 3.3 per cent per annum.The potential for meeting this estimate exists astwo thirds of African countries have developedless than 20 per cent of their agricultural productionand less than 5 per cent of the cultivatedarea is under irrigation in all but four countries.Water-managed areas in national agriculturevary from less than 1 per cent of cultivated landin such countries as the Democratic Republic ofthe Congo, Comoros, Ghana, Togo and Ugandato 100 per cent in the most arid countries such asEgypt and Djibouti where agriculture is impossiblewithout irrigation. Furthermore, it shouldbe noted that, currently, no single subregion inAfrica can boast of food security without recourseto food imports or external food aid.Yet, the amount of water withdrawn in Africa asa whole for the three major uses is only 3.8 percent of the internal renewable resources, reflectinga low level of development and use of waterresources in the continent. In the context of thiscontradiction of water availability and yet lackof access to it, it becomes necessary to raise theissue of valuing water, including its market andnon-market values which must be defined, in orderto reconcile the economic, social and environmentalvalues of water.VALUING WATER275