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

African Water Development Report 2006What impact are we having on ourfreshwater resources?In addition to overuse, pollution of available waterresources can add to the burden and costs ofsupplying water to urban areas. Human impactson freshwater resources in Africa are mainly derivedfrom the following:(a) Population growth incompatible with economicgrowth;(b) Fast growing urban cities;(c) Human and animal faecal disposal onto theenvironment;(d) Waste water and storm water run-off disposal;and(e) Urban waste refuse disposal.(f) Fertiliser use in agriculture (R. Meissner,2002)Even though the African continent is the leastpopulated in the world, there has been a greatdeal of dicussion on the so-called “African populationexplosion”, in the past three decades. Itall depends on how this pernicious argument istackled, either from the neo-Malthusian point ofview or from the newly emerging social view. Theneo-Malthusian argument concerning demographywas challenged for the first time in an officialsetting at the 1974 Bucharest World Conferenceon Population under the auspices of the UnitedNations Population Fund (UNFPA), accordingto which the population explosion has led to anunhealthy environment across the entire globe.On the other hand, the central argument of thesocial view is that rapid population growth is asymptom of social and economic predicamentsand not the cause thereof. In other words, peopleare not necessarily poor because they have manychildren and a large family to support, but theyhave many children because they are poor (R.Meissner, 2002). Traditionally, children are asource of social security, therefore leading to highfertility rates and to also compensate for highchild mortality rates. Moreover, African childrenare seen as a useful source of domestic labour,helping with household responsibilities, such asfetching water and gathering wood for fuel. It isthe greater access to social security services, suchas water supply, health care and education thatallow people, especially women, to have fewerchildren and not the material poverty per se. It istherefore hoped that the observed reducing trendof population growth in Africa will be sustainedin the long-term (Figs. 4.18 and 4.19).Figure 4.18: Projected Annual Population Growth Rate by Subregion in Africa (2003-2050)3.0Annual Pop. Growth Rate2.52.01.51.00.50.0Eastern Africa Middle Africa Northern Africa Southern Africa Western AfricaSub RegionSource: World Population Prospects: The 2002 Revision. New York: UN Secretariat, 200376