Growing calls for water priotisation
Efforts to establish water as an agenda item in its own right in climate change negotiations are gaining momentum in Durban, South Africa.
Water experts say doing this will lead to a greater focus on developing policy, and attract more resources into the water sector through adaptation programmes.
The Water Research Commission (WRC) in South Africa is a member of the Global Water Partnership, a global alliance of organizations working on water issues. Access to water is an urgent issue in the Southern Africa region, where nearly 100 million people lack adequate access to water.
Modeling by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa shows the region will become hotter and drier over the next 50 to 100 years, putting farms, industry, domestic water supply and natural ecosystems at risk.
International water experts and policy makers are concerned that planning for changes to water availability is not getting the prominence it deserves. At this point, water issues are being discussed by treaty negotiators as part of wider planning, prioritising and implementing of adaptation to a changing climate.
More than 70 percent of the Southern African Development Community's population depends directly on farming, overwhelmingly on rain-fed agriculture. The CSIR's projections are among many drawing attention to how predicted changes to rainfall, limited resources for adaptation and a lack of institutions and capacity to regulate river and stream flow will leave people in Southern Africa and across the continent extremely vulnerable.
Similar challenges are predicted not only for Africa, but across the world as weather patterns change, but Africa's lack of irrigation and other infrastructure is a factor that magnifies the need for urgent intervention.
As rainfall patterns change, Africa is facing major crises. Millions faced famine in Niger and Mali in 2010 after drought hit farmers and herders. This year, the Horn of Africa has been facing its worst drought in 50 years and millions are suffering from hunger.
According to the U.N. World Food Programme, some 12.3 million people in the Horn are in need of emergency assistance. In 2008, African heads of state agreed to make water and sanitation a priority. Leaders agreed to allocate at least 0.5 percent of their national budget to water.
However, providing adequate access to water across Africa will cost billions of dollars. And for the many African governments which are failing to honour earlier commitments will not be able to raise the required amounts without support.
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