Urbanization and Water Shortage: Partners in Crime
Sub-Saharan Africans are moving to cities now more so than ever. Ditching their previous lives in rural Africa, consisting of hour-long walks to the nearest water hole and frequent water-borne diseases, thousands of new faces are arriving in cities each day. Heading towards areas with more advanced technological, educational, and medicinal resources, who could blame these people for leaving behind their traditional, rural lives? God, this urban movement almost sounds too good to be true. That’s because it is. While cities are normally associated with being able to satisfy a person’s every need within a minute’s walk, these sub-Saharan cities are missing something necessary to sustain life: water. Increased water extraction, along with pathetic sanitation systems has depleted many urban water stocks. With the urbanization rates showing no sign of letting up, the poor city residents can only continue to wonder what the future holds for their physical health and general well-being.
Every sub-Saharan nation is labeled as a “Low & Middle Income” country, or LAMI for short. Historically, these countries were comprised of rural populations who worked in the agricultural sector. In the last forty years, the demographic trends of this region have been flipped on their heads. At an absurd rate, developing nations in Southern Africa are bidding farewell to the fields and are moving to highly-concentrated cities. Wide-ranging educational resources, more job opportunities, and better-equipped medical clinics are among the primary causes of urban movement. The people of sub-Saharan Africa are hoping to craft a better way of life for themselves, a life that exists only in the city. “By the year 2025, there will be four urban dwellers in LAMI countries for each one in the rest of the world” (Seregeldin). These people all cling to the same dream; they want to pioneer a brighter future for Africa, one that isn’t characterized by poverty, conflict, and corruption. The possibilities are endless. So are the consequences.
If a city’s population skyrockets within a short period, it only makes sense that the usage of that respective city’s resources will also see a steady increase, right? As predictable as this trend may seem, urbanization and its effects have magnified the ignorance of several sub-Saharan nations. Blindsided by the influx in population, urban areas in Africa are now trying to combat a common evil: an extreme water shortage.
“Who’s to say this water crisis hasn’t arisen due to unseasonable droughts?” Yeah, frequent droughts play a role in depleting the region of its water resources, but this is a tale as old as time. How about we open our eyes and begin to accept the fact that urbanization is driving the water shortage; these urbanization trends are driving city growth at an unprecedented rate. Urbanization has also left the region’s water supply at an all-time low, a statistic that has somehow managed to fly under the radar. So much for that fairy-tale image of a sustainable future. According to a study conducted by WHO and UNICEF, the number of urban residents who were without access to improved water sources rose from 113 million individuals in 1990 to 173 million individuals in 2000. The correlation between the rates of urbanization and the growing number of people without adequate sources of water is stark. Urban growth shows no signs of diminishing any time soon; it is up to Africa to keep up with the changing times.
Keeping up with changes has proved to be quite difficult for Southern Africa. The sheer volume of available water is not only decreasing, but the amount of water unfit for human consumption is also increasing. The majority of sub-Saharan Africa is dependant on surface water from lakes, rivers, and basins to feed their demand for the resource. As more people begin to interact with these sources of water, the water quality also begins to decline. This trend has given way to a new problem, one that is just as frightening as over-extraction: the inability to decontaminate water. Thanks to aging infrastructures, current sewage plants cannot purify water at a rate which will meet the heightened demand caused by recent urbanization.
So what have the urban residents done? Well, having run out of other viable alternatives, the decision has boiled down to a matter of life or death. Filthy water is better than no water at all, so millions of people in the region have decided to sacrifice their health in order to survive: the price of progress.
Such is the case in Cameroon. The capital city of Yaoundé, now home to over two million inhabitants, possesses four wastewater sewage plants that are underperforming in every way, shape, and form. In a city that possesses sufficient water treatment sites and a secure infrastructure, harmful waste from landfills is removed from the water long before it’s ever deemed appropriate for human consumption. Plain and simple. Case closed.
As I said, treating the water supply is what any city with a grounded, stable infrastructure would do. If you thought I was talking about Yaoundé, you’ve probably lost your mind. Yaoundé struggles with scarce financial resources and a worn-down infrastructure. According to Mariella Naah, a professor at the University of Paris, “the capacity of the WWTP were comprised between 650 and 30,000 population equivalent but the truly functioning WWTP were covering around 6300 population equivalent in total which represent 0.3% of Yaoundé population” (Naah). That is to say that the current waste treatment plants are only serving 0.3% of the city’s population. That statistic is impressive in all the worst ways possible.
The great majority of the population are left fighting a constant battle against water-borne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, and diarrhea. UNICEF reports that 500 children die every day in sub-Saharan due to diseases related to inadequate water and lack of sanitation. Little to anyone’s surprise, African governments are underachieving in their sanitation-improvement efforts. Currently, investments toward sanitation and water treatment improvement account for a mere 0.1% of GDP in countries such as Cameroon. Urbanization is a trend which these countries weren’t prepared to embrace, and as a result, their citizens are suffering.
Ghana’s capital city Accra is gaining new residents by the day, and the city’s water supply is stressed, kindly speaking. Joyce Ayitey is a local street vendor and mother of three living in Diabolo, a congested neighborhood in the eastern part of Accra. However, she’s more than just any citizen of Diabolo; she’s a citizen who has been living without water in her home for over two years. So what does she do now? Joyce makes the tiring trip every day to fetch water and bring it back to her house, just as it is done in rural, agricultural Africa. The water crisis has been detrimental to all aspects of her life: her business, her family, her pride. From an interview with Bloomberg News, Joyce stated: “It is very unpleasant and dehumanizing for me as a woman. I am actually planning to move to a house with a guaranteed water supply.” The saddest part? Joyce’s constant struggle with water scarcity is not singular. She is only one among millions of individuals living in sub-Saharan cities who are in desperate need of a drink of water.
Perhaps most devastating of all, in Ethiopia, citizens living in the densely populated city of Harar watched the devastating effects of a water crisis unfold before their eyes. Lake Haramaya served as the main water source in the region for hundreds of years, and the people were dependent on the lake’s ability to provide water to the entire region. To slake the thirst of over 150,000 mouths, the city’s dwellers would pray that Lake Haramaya would be able to retain enough water via rainfall each year. Rainfall from the areas surrounding the lake were the sole means of retaining or replenishing the water levels, so it would be an understatement to say that the population’s general well being relied on uncontrollable forces. Before this Ethiopian region began experiencing a great deal of urban movement, a drought wouldn’t have automatically signaled the alarm on an imminent water crisis. Those were the old days though. Change is amidst the city of Harar, change in the wrong direction that is.
Human extraction and evaporation were the primary causes for the reduction of water levels, and according to a study on urban water supply in developing countries, “the rate of human extraction was 35 1/s for 25 years, but during the last 10 years, this was increased to 60 1/s due to higher water needs in the expanding cities served by the water of the lakes.” If you were to go visit Lake Haramaya today, they would find themselves walking over the dry, barren grave of a lake that once served as the life source for an entire region. All that remains are angry citizens, shocked to their cores that a lake of such vast size could suddenly cease to exist. It might be time to time to hit the panic button, I’m just saying.
The people of Harar walked a dangerous line. They assumed Lake Haramaya would continue to supply them with a stable source of fresh water, just as it had throughout the region’s history. Today, the Ethiopian citizens are left asking questions that will never be answered. They are living through the destructive effects that urbanization can on the water supply, and they have even compromised their physical and economic well-being. Girma Moges, Lake Haramaya’s pump manager while the pump was still operable, had this to say about the death of the lake: “Once he’s dying, maybe they give him a little medicine, and once he’s dead, they are sorry.”
It is disheartening to see how far behind many sub-Saharan countries have fallen in their attempts to thwart the effects of urbanization relative to water supply. Crucial lakes and rivers are evaporating before our very eyes, but millions of people are still migrating towards urban centers. These hopefuls were once mesmerized by the prospects of a new life. I mean, how could you blame them? An endless flow of water at the snap of one’s fingers, an escape from diseases which plague rural Africa, and a safer environment to raise a family are among the endless factors which spurred urban growth. As it turns out, these people have arrived at African cities only to learn that the water shortage has followed them too. The sub-Saharan region of Africa is caught in the middle of an ongoing game of cat and mouse; African authorities just seem to always be one step behind. The truth of the matter is simple. If Southern Africa does not find a way to counter the rapid urbanization trend and its effects on the water supply, the day will soon come when the water crisis in sub-Saharan Africa reaches a point beyond saving.
