Africa's water laws hindering the present

I had mentioned in my first blog the colonization of water in Africa in the 1900s. In this blog, I will be investigating what had happened with water in this time and how its repercussions are felt today. Colonization in Africa had many aspects to it, many people often focus on land. Land in Africa was taken from individuals' hands and then used as a profit mechanism for settlers. For example, today in South Africa there are land reforms happening to return the land to black South Africans (FinancialTimes). However, evidently it was not the only land that was abused by colonizers but water too, freshwater to be exact. In fact, the practices that were used on the water in colonial times is hurting Africa's advancements (FinancialTimes).

Settlers home in Njoro, 1909 (oldafricamagazine)

 

 As mentioned in my first blog, Africa was reliant on water permits. These permits were a system of owning water under the rules of the settlers. However, today these systems of permits remain in place. In which case farmers and citizens are obliged to apply for these permits in order to access water legally. Obviously, this type of system meant revenue for those who owned the water and permit systems, thus the minority settlers during the colonial times profited from water rights. Today however this system must change in order for Africa to have better water systems all over the continent as these permit systems ultimately benefit the large-scale farmers who have the money and the resources to apply for these permits whereas it leaves the small-scale farmers lost in the back(FinancialTimes). In addition, the majority of farmers in Africa, those who are poor and have small patches of land, have been used to the loss of their lands as they were taken advantage of during colonial times which continued throughout history through capitalist transformation and the corruption of more modern governments (Wily, 2011). On another note to add even more complexity, most of Africa’s farmers are dependent on rainfall and when this occurs the small-scale farmers are fine, however as our climate is changing and we are all very well aware of it, the small-scale farmers can not rely on nature to ensure crop yields(Financial Times). In this case, there is an extreme need for better irrigation for the whole of Africa in order to allow small-scale farmers, which contribute to 70% of the African workforce, to continue their work. This is essential for future water provisions and to ensure food production.

A team of researchers and experts from all over Africa meeting about the permit system and how to get rid of it, or make it more efficient (IWMI)

 
 In using a case study, we can better imagine the transitions from a colonized water system to a post-colonial system. Through an article from ResearchGate, I learned about a project in Nigeria called the Kano River Project. In the times of colonization, controlling the water resources was another way to make money, so settlers came in, made projects including; dams, irrigation networks, purification systems, etc., just to collect a profit. However, this also inhibited many Africans from creating their own water resource methods thus once independence had arrived some governments were in serious need of help to secure the water rights and irrigation tactics. The Kano River Project demonstrates just this. In Nigeria, the government requested international aid to secure rural water rights. A Dutch-based company came in with engineers, workers, and others to use the floodplains for irrigation of agriculture. Even though these were the years where independence was being instilled, the international aid authorities still had full authority and would in fact force farmers to cultivate certain crops according to the water needs (Ertsen, 2008).

Kano River Project (ResearchGate)

 

 As with the colonial settlers, using the African lands for profit has been a recurring theme. Through this, we can see that using African waters has also been occurring. We know that much of the agriculture in Africa relies on rainfall so all the measures taken from colonization to post-colonization have only deteriorated the water systems of Africa since it has never allowed the locals to decide how to control their own water. It is only now, in the present day that people are realizing that Africa and its small-scale farmers can not mess up, “We have already made the mistake of intensive agriculture in Europe, we should not replicate it in Africa because this model destroys family farming and reduces biodiversity” (Barbiere, 2016). From this quote, we can see that water for agriculture is crucial in Africa and colonization took that away and turned it into a private good that now has to be made more widely available in order to ensure better and more stable cultivation.