Posts

Learning from our mistakes

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Some final thoughts… Two contrasting examples of water privatisation in sub-Saharan African countries were analysed and discussed to illustrate the effectiveness of different reform schemes in the last two posts. As this series of posts comes to an end, I would like to use the platform to conclude with some thoughts I have developed through the research I’ve done and conversations I have had about it. The examples of water privatisation outlined how one method has been used by sub-Saharan states to counter and prevent violent activity over water scarcity or mismanagement of the resource. The contracts and concessions in Guinea and Ivory Coast differ hugely, the most notable and influential difference I have found to be the difference in institutional endowments granted by the state. What can we learn from Ivory Coast? I have strongly supported the argument that Ivory Coast water privatisation was predominantly successful and has shown extreme potential as a framework. Dur
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Water Privatisation - A Story of Success

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Ivory Coast: Successful water privatisation Consistency in the reinforcement of the institutional and governance participation is key to achieve a successful reform, as I illustrated in my last blog post. The case study on Guinea exemplifies how African water privatisation can falsely project an image of improving performance of the water sector. The failure of the reform in Guinea can be traced back to the weak institutional framework and public policies in place at the time of the reform in 1989 ( The World Bank, 2000 ). When analysing this in relation to Pierce’s claim arguing that existing institutional structures and the political stability of a country at the time of reform determine the success of it ( Pierce, 2015 ), this seems to be in rather strong accordance. A contrasting example that also correlates with Pierce’s statement, is that of the Ivorian water system. The water system that existed in Abidjan, where 40% of the country’s population is situated ( Ménard and Cl
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Institutional and Governance Capacity

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Privatisation in Guinea Welcome back to my blog! I hope the posts so far have been informative and insightful to some of the debates around conflicts over water. I would like to approach this topic from a more proactive standpoint, investigate how some of these conflicts have been tackled and discuss a few preventative approaches. One popular method amongst states in Africa has been privatizing the water system. In Africa public-private partnerships are formed to shift the ownership of the water supply from the state to a private company ( Pierce, 2015 ), a market dominated by the two French investors SAUR and Vivendi. (Credits Pierre Holtz/IRIN) The situation in Guinea is one of continued failure. Poor performance of the water sector was characterized by very sparse access and extremely high rates of water-borne diseases spreading across the densely populated urban areas. In Conakry, the nation’s capital, the problems were situated in the managerial structure of the wat
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EAC ll - Lake Victoria

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EAC Part Two - Lake Victoria With three of the six Nile Basin EAC member states bordering Lake Victoria (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda), disputes around the shared water source is high. As one of the large sources of water to the White Nile, Lake Victoria is subject to political contestation and this blog post will explore how the resource availability in each bordering country adds to the internal pressure of access to and sovereignty of the lake. ( Ogello, 2013 ) If a country is resource scarce, it does not necessarily mean that conflict is inevitable- it may however, spark social dissatisfaction and could potentially lead to political mobilisation or international disputes. This has been the case with all three countries sharing direct access to Lake Victoria. The collective future pressures from a variety of factors including population pressure, agricultural expansion or hydroelectric power on the Nile is unknown ( Sida, 2004 ). There is however, evidence stating that
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EAC l - Involvement in the Nile Basin

EAC Part One In my last blog post I spoke about South Sudan’s water crisis and the country’s position within the Nile Basin, which I will build on with my following two posts by going further upstream the White Nile to Lake Victoria. As I mentioned in the South Sudan case study, the White Nile only contributes about 28% of the total Nile flow, but due to the high variance in flow from the Blue Nile and seasonal variability, the White Nile can at times make up to 80% of the total flow of the lower Nile river ( Sida, 2004 ). In this post I will evaluate the role of the EAC in the Nile Basin and look at how the treaties have shaped the presence of EAC member states in the conversation over the Nile waters. The EAC is an intergovernmental body serving the purpose of peaceful cooperation in economic and political realm of the member states ( EAC, 2017 ). There were three treaties over the course of the past century, each between different riparian states; 1929, 1959 and 2002. They at
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South Sudan: A Case Study

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South Sudan water crisis In an ideal world, every person on this planet would have access to safe drinking water. In Africa, issues related to accessibility and sporadic occurrence paired with increasing population pressure prevent this goal from being achieved. In this blog post I will look at the ongoing water crisis in South Sudan and the role of the Nile for the country. The Nile River Basin is a geographic area of high water availability but as a direct consequence of the mismanagement of access to and usage of it, hydropolitical issues have been the root cause of international disputes between the riparian states over the past century. Credits: The World Bank Group South Sudan water conflict The war in South Sudan has escalated to unexpected levels. According to aid officials, emergency and food trucks are being hijacked and intentionally blocked by both rebel forces and government soldiers. Efforts by aid workers to reach vulnerable populations have been complicat
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Drought in Kenya

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According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Environmental Outlook to 2030 report , 47% of the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030. This proportion is reflected in Kenya’s current state of humanitarian crisis (OECD, 2008); 23 out of 47 counties and have declared a state of drought emergency. Water shortages and declining water availability exacerbate the spread of deadly disease and food insecurity across the country, in turn fuelling the existing tribal tensions between different groups. The competition for water continues to grow in step with population pressure, leading to extreme instability of community relations where “fighting could break out at any moment” (Oxfam, 2017). Women and children are particularly vulnerable and susceptible to these consequences (OCHA, 2017). This post will explore some of the specific consequences that have arisen as a direct result of this resource shortage with a specific focu
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