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INTRODUCTION

Hello and welcome to this 'water and environmental change' blog series!

In this blog, my aim will be to explore the relationship between water and environmental change in the African continent, focusing on key examples from a variety of regions across Africa. I will attempt to convey the relationship between natural and anthropogenic processes on the accessibility and distribution of water within the continent, drawing on both past and present-day events in order to achieve this.

The reason I want to explore the topic of environmental change and water is because water has been identified as the primary medium through which people in Africa will experience the effects of climate change. Water scarcity is also major challenge for the continent, impacting 2/3 of the population (UN 2019). My blog will explore issues such the impacts of climatic changes on the hydrological cycle, infrastructural land use changes and extreme weather events to further understand the links between water and the social, economic and political issues that exist within Africa.

Africa is a continent which is highly vulnerable to the impacts of environmental change. According to the Climate Change and Environmental Change Atlas 2015, 70% of the countries across the globe that are severely threatened by climate change are located in the African continent (UN 2019). These countries fall largely within the Sub-Saharan African region, which is found to suffer the worst consequences of climate change, including diminishing water supplies and water quality in what is an already highly water-stressed environment (Comou et al, 2016).

Figure 1:  levels of water risk (source)

Africa has the lowest median freshwater extraction per capita due to erratic access, fluctuating river discharge and a lack of connection between availability and access (UN 2019). Environmental changes are exacerbating these climate variabilities. Temperatures across much of the continent have already increased by approximately 0.7°C, resulting in recurrent extreme weather events such droughts and increased flooding, as well as changes in natural ecosystems and loss of biodiversity (BBC 2019) It is thus vital to explore these challenges and identify what can be done to help.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in the next post!


Comments

  1. ClementNovember 28, 2021 at 4:27 AM

    A nice introduction to the physical geography of Water across the continent of Africa, but there were limited reference citing. Also, you did not define the scope of your analysis. The writing is good, but referencing need to be improved.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sakeena El DiwanyJanuary 3, 2022 at 8:24 AM

    Thank you for your comment! I will aim to improve references in future posts.

    ReplyDelete

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