water and environmental change africa

In my last blog post, I wrote about water management in transboundary countries. The challenges lie in the fact that all neighboring countries have rights of availability but can use them differently and thus disadvantage other countries. Today I will look at the Nile basin, which contains ten countries. Nile River basin There were some key transboundary water agreements in 1966 (Helsinki Rules), 1997 (UN Convention) and 2009 (Law of Transboundary Aquifers) (Thompson, 2019). When I try to summarize this, the laws ensure sustainable and balanced use. But it isn’t that easy. The disagreements are mainly between Ethiopia, Sudan, and Egypt. More than 300 million people rely on Niles water. In 2011 Ethiopia launched a 4.8 billion project called Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam (GERD), close to the Sudanian border ( TRT World ). GERD The dam shall solve the problems of food and water insecurity and energy shortage in Ethiopia and the neighbouring area. Belonging that Ethiopia ha...

In this post, I will discuss the transboundary risks that may arise from sharing the same water source. This refers to the challenges and problems that exist when several countries have shares in the e.g. same lake, as is the case with all the lakes I have presented in recent weeks. These conflict risks increase or change due to the influence of climate change on the conditions of the lakes. For this reason, I would like to recapitulate the changing climatic conditions and the impact of water resources. Climate change is mainly characterised by the ever-increasing variability and regional scarcity. The generally weak institutional capacity must also be taken into account. Studies show that water resources (lakes & river basins) react very sensitively to the changing climatic conditions, as I have made clear in recent weeks. There are regional effects and changes. However, the projections for this century tend to predict a decline in water levels. An example is the N...

In this post, I would like to look at the changing socio-economic repercussions. In an article I read, a fisherman complains that his income has fallen by 70 per cent and that he has problems asserting himself in other areas of work. Since he has been in this profession for decades, he has noticed the changes. His way of life has changed a lot due to the decrease in the amount of fish in the lake so that he had to register his children at another school because he could not afford the previous one. Of course, this fisherman is not the only one affected. According to scientists, the reasons for the loss of fish are over-fishing, pollution and other human activities. This also includes anthropogenic climate change. An increasing major challenge is also posed by the growing population of the basin. According to the article, it’s Africa’s fastest-growing population with over 30 million people, whose livelihood is depending on the lake.  Fishing boats (Uganda) I would n...