Water war looms for Africa
2003-09-09 22:14
Addis Ababa - African countries could face water wars if the power of their mighty rivers isn't properly harnessed and shared, officials from across the continent said on Tuesday.
Government ministers from 19 African nations discussed how to streamline and better utilize three main river basins - the Nile, the Zambezi and the Senegal - that constitute the economic backbone of the countries they drain.
"The utilization of these rivers has mostly been a source of contention and conflict," Ethiopian minister of water resources Shiferaw Jarso told the two-day summit entitled "Africa's Experience of International Waters."
More than two-thirds of Africa's 60 river basins are shared by more than one country - creating potential conflict over how they should be harnessed and used.
The United Nations Development Program warned in a recent report that water wars are likely in areas where rivers are shared by more than one country.
Sam Nyambi, the head of UNDP in Ethiopia, told the summit that the management and development of the continent's water is vital not only for peace, but will make it more readily available for drinking, hydroelectric power, tourism and agriculture.
"The shared rivers offer many opportunities for increased food production, for transport, energy, sound environmental management and for trade and growth," Nyambi said.
But just a mere 4% of the continent's fresh water is being properly utilized, said Abdirahman Beileh, a water resource expert with the African Development Bank.
Beileh warned that increasing demand might spark future conflict. He also said there were enormous financial hurdles to overcome in building a continental water infrastructure system that would provide irrigation systems, joint hydroelectric production and early warning systems for floods.
Such a system would work along the Nile River whose watershed includes Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, government ministers representing those countries said. The Nile Basin supplies water to about 300 million people.
Beileh said the African bank had already pledged $$33m for the Nile Basin Initiative, a project that aims to promote the rational use of the river.
David Grey, a senior water adviser with the World Bank, said that $2bn could be invested in Nile river projects alone in the coming years much of it from the private sector.
Ministers from Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe also attended the summit that ends on Wednesday.
- AP