Water and Food in Africa

The volume of groundwater in Africa is estimated to be 600,000 km 3 but it doesn’t get the attention it deserves  (Macdonald,2012) . To put this in perspective, that is 100 times more than the ‘ renewable freshwater resources ' and 20 times more than the  freshwater  in African lakes. Furthermore, Falkenmark’s Water Stress Index, once seen as a definitive measure of water scarcity in Africa, only measures water scarcity through river discharge, completely ignoring groundwater!    Today I will discuss the potential of groundwater irrigation, particularly focusing on the Sub-Saharan region of Africa.  Groundwater Distribution    There are many different  groundwater irrigation schemes in Africa through privately as well as publicly funded projects. Specifically, Sub-Saharan Africa has huge potential for increased agricultural production as only 3.3% of arable land is irrigated , compared to 37% of arable land in Asia (Vilhoth,2013) . ...

I have been very privileged to explore different subsections of the African continent, through different expeditions.   On each trip I have experienced various levels of luxury, from a safari to school trips and charity missions.  While I believe I have only scraped the surface in my exploration of this continent, one thing has become abundantly clear. Africa is diverse. Diverse in culture, diverse in politics, diverse in economics and diverse in the issues it faces. Two of these issues are things I have been lucky to take for granted in my life: Food and Water. In this introductory blog I shall provide some context to the interconnected nature of these two resources, while exploring some of the opportunities and barriers to development. Water  Water provision in Africa is incredibly complex, demonstrated by difficulty in providing a universally accepted metric to measure it. Falkenmark’s Water Stress index is one of the most popular: it states that a country is water...