‘Water for all’ in a globalised world?

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“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was not just water, but the voice of life, the voice of being, the voice of perpetual becoming.” – Siddharta, Hermann Hesse

It seems to me that in many people's minds (my colleagues at university, my family back home, the broader society I am part of … ), water is an undervalued resource. We are not grateful for the water that reliably comes out of our tap: the water that satisfies our thirst, that cleans our hands and bodies, that makes cooking our food possible- because how can you be honestly grateful for something that you do not consciously value?

I have conducted a small piece of ‘qualitative research’ in order to find out how the people in my environment perceive the importance of ‘water’. I asked them:

-        A. What is the first thing you associate when you hear ‘water’?

-        B. What do you perceive as the biggest issue in relation to ‘water’?

-        C. How often do you feel grateful for having permanent and safe access to fresh water?

Answers for A. ranged from bottled water brands to ‘basic necessity’, answers for B. were quite accurate in capturing major issues (water related diseases, climate change,..). The last question did the same for almost all of them -  they gave me an apologising smile and said ‘rarely’.

The answers I got in these short conversations will not seem surprising, but they have definitely made me more aware of the prevailing lack of awareness.  My unenlightened colleagues and myself perceive water as a taken for granted reality of live. We have not yet understood the scope in which it operates our daily routine, and in what ways we all are interwoven in the water struggles that happen in the most remote regions.

I hope that looking into the water issues that Africa faces will evoke some kind of gratefulness.

The majority of water stressed countries are located in Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 1/3 of its population live in water scarce areas and in the near future, up to 700 million people will be displaced due to unliveable conditions (Gisclimat 2016). The variety of interconnected reasons for this physical as well as economic water scarcity are quite difficult to grasp, ranging from droughts, climate change, pollution, overexploitation of freshwater resources to lacking water management systems and access barriers. Consequences of water scarcity include health risks, loss of food security, livelihoods and forced migration. Solution approaches are very diverse and hold potential for development activity, one particular solution approach I want to focus on is preventing the causes in the first place.

In the next few blog posts I want to focus on one particular issue that has been observed in SSA for quite a while now – land grabbing over water.

More precisely, I intent to explore land deals in SSA by foreign corporations/investors, who aim to implement large-scale agricultural operations that depend on and exploit local freshwater resources. These export-oriented projects have not only had devastating impacts on rural communities who rely on those water resources, but have also become a threat to the entire region.

The term under which these land acquisitions commonly happen is ‘agribusiness’. 

- Overall rankings for agribusiness investment and opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa                               (Linklater 2016)

In the recent past, the business world’s belief that Africa is anticipating a ‘green revolution’ by making proper use of its agricultural potential has generated much investment in the region. These beliefs are based on claims like ’Africa has some 240 million hectares of unused arable land, the equivalent of all arable land in India and China combined’ (Linklater 2016) and developments as seen in Rwanda, where grain production tripled between 2000 and 2014, indicating that agricultural production has experienced major breakthroughs in the last decades and presents a major business opportunity (PwC 2016). PwC ‘Africa Agribusiness insight survey 2016’ has summarised the opinions of various agribusiness CEOs, indicating that East and South Africa (especially Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana and South Africa) were at the forefront of promising investment environments (Grain 2012). The advocates of foreign investment into agriculture in these regions forecast economic growth - lifting communities out of poverty, creating employment, stability and furthering smallholder development (Ford 2016). However one must bear in mind that ‘profit maximising revenue generation’ is usually the first point of consideration in capitalist economic thinking, and will therefore be given priority in any conflict of interest. Often, investors don’t even bother to euphemise their intentions, such as the UK investment firm ‘Chayton Capitals’, by saying that

‘The value is not in the land … The real value is in the water’

(referring to acquiring farmland in Zambia) (Grain 2012). 

what ‘Agribusiness’ sees in Africa   (Linklater 2016)                                                                 

Even though many ‘agribusiness’ operations are convinced to merge their own economic profit with development endeavours in Africa, I find this a quite weak line of argument that will only convince the short-sighted. It neglects the impact on natural resources, local human conditions and future potential consequences. When talking about ‘expanding agricultural potential’, it is not so obvious to people that the exploitation of water resources is a necessary implication in that. The availability of vast amounts of freshwater in many regions in Africa (such as Niger and Nile basin) is in most cases the precise reason for foreign interest in investment and industrial agriculture (Grain 2012).

Here a tiny glimpse into how inequalities are enabled by legal contracts:

The U.S owned agricultural corporation Herakles Farms has leased more than 73,000 hectares of land in South West Cameroon for its palm oil plantations (Grain 2012). Besides from being accused of ‘corrupt land grab and illegal forest exploitation activities’ (Reuters Foundation 2013) by civil society groups, the plantation has been hindering local farmers to expand their food production.  Since the contract gives the company the right ’to use, free, unlimited quantities of water in its land grant’ (Grain 2012), local communities have been denied their access to water. Unsurprisingly, the location of the plantation is near to the most important watersheds in Cameroon.  

References: 

Conference on Water scarcity in Africa: challenges and issues [Internet]. gisclimat. 2016 [cited 22 October 2016]. Available from: http://www.giscilmat.fr/manifestation-scientifique/conférence-''water-scarcity-africa-issues-and-challenges

Ford N. A time of change for Agribusiness. African Business. 2016;:13-16.

PwC. Africa Business insights survey. PwC; 2016.

Grain. Squeezing Africa Dry: Behind every land grab is a water grab. Grain; 2012.

Reuters Foundation, “Cameroon NGOs ask U.S. government to investigate palm oil venture”  July 9, 2013. http://www.trust.org/item/20130709090129-hxdkr/?source=hptop

Linklaters. Agribusiness investment and opportunity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Linklaters; 2016.http://www.linklaters.com/Insights/Thought-Leadership/aim-africa/pages/index.aspx/

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