Africa Water and Food Problems exacerbated by Drought

“Hunger and food insecurity can lead to instability. There is a vicious feedback loop between conflict and hunger currently at play in dozens of countries around the world. War drives hunger and hunger drives war.” - Chase Sova and Eilish Zembilci

Drought can  cause hunger and food insecurity especially in areas of subsistence farming. According to the United Nations, “more than half of global population growth between now and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa. Africa has the highest rate of population growth among major areas. The population of sub-Saharan Africa is projected to double by 2050. …that region will play a central role in shaping the size and distribution of the world’s population over the coming decades.” Unfortunately, they are a very poor  and scientists tell us that sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most vulnerable parts of the world to climate change because of a high dependency on subsistence, rain-fed agriculture and natural resources.

This week, the United Nations’ food agency has declared a food crisis (famine)  in five countries — Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The individual countries have all declared national disasters over the drought and hunger. These countries are all part of sub Saharan Africa and  the U.N.’s World Food Program estimates that about 21 million children in sub Saharan Africa are now malnourished as crops have failed.

In a press conference in Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland the World Food Program Spokesperson for Southern Africa, Tomson Phiri appealed to Western Nations for relief funds. “At the request of governments, WFP has started to provide food assistance and critical support in transport, logistics and food procurement. Against soaring global needs, we have only received one fifth of the US$369 million needed to provide assistance to millions in Southern Africa. 

While the funding received so far has allowed WFP to begin relief food distributions, a significant funding gap remains, which threatens to jeopardize plans for a full-scale response through to the end of the lean season in March next year.” 

Meanwhile, the drought has impacted water availability in South Africa reducing water availability in the Vaal River system. Rand Water, the company that supplies the cities of Johannesburg, Pretoria and Ekurhuleni is in danger of cutting off water supply. This past week they announced that if municipalities do not act on its recommendations to fix leaks and conserve water, the water storage for the cities will soon be depleted. Rand Water can’t pump more water from the Vaal River system and reservoir because of the limits of its extraction license with the Department of Water and Sanitation.

The country’s water-supply systems have deteriorated because of inadequate maintenance, sabotage, a lack of planning for population growth, mismanagement, corruption and political infighting. The South African government that pushed out the completion of a $2 billion project to expand reservoirs to increase supplies from Lesotho, a mountainous enclave in South Africa, by a decade until 2029.

Now with the drought, Rand Water is withdrawing more water than it is authorized 1 680Mm³/Ann vs authorized 1 347Mm³/Annum. When there wasn’t a drought they were able to do this, but not now. Will the conflicts in the area grow as water and food become less available.