Water Insecurity in the African Context Research Assignment (Research Paper Sample)

Water insecurity in the African context
According to the South African Government, "25 liters of water per person is the minimum amount needed for daily consumption”, this includes its use for drinking, food preparation, and personal hygiene among others (Grey & Sadoff, 2007). It might seem that this amount is not even near the amount we use per day, but in some impoverished parts of the globe, being able to have this much is already considered a luxury, if not, a far-fetched dream. However, how much water is enough to provide our daily needs and comforts? According to Unwater (2014); typical Americans use about 380 liters of water per day; a German uses 129 liters, and others from developing states use about 20-30 liters per day. These (enormous) amounts used in affluent states include water’s usage for our lawns and filling our pools, however, for people who barely live with a liter a day, satisfying their thirst is not even an option. (South African Government 1994:1, as cited by Chaminuka & Nyatsanza, 2013). It is apparent that the seeming correlation between a state’s affluence and water security begs the question; what do they have in common? Does one of them affect the other?
At first glance, it might seem that a state’s economy determines its water security. However, many affluent states like Dubai, UAE, and South Africa are water secured (to some extent), despite their naturally arid lands. One contention that the researcher has is contrary to what most of us believe; "that an economy influences water security and not the other way around." However, he believes that 'the relationship between a state’s economy and its water security is not unilateral, rather it is a continuous cycle of misfortunes that would retain its momentum unless one part of is broken. He also believes that considerable economic change coupled with effective policy reforms can make a state water secure, and vice versa.
Poverty and water insecurity
As mentioned above, one can almost predict with a great degree of accuracy whether a state is at poverty or affluence based on two factors: (1) a state’s hydrologic legacy and (2) its investments towards water infrastructures and institutions. According to Grey & Sadoff (2007), there is a high correlation between poverty and a state’s failure to develop efficient ways of harnessing its bodies of water’s potential benefits. In other words, to achieve growth and development and to combat hunger and the spread of pandemics, the state must be able to to make the most out of its bodies of water via the establishment of proper institutions and right infrastructural investments (Grey & Sadoff, 2007). Water security is paramount in economic growth and development. However, before we proceed, what exactly is water security? Water security is defined as the capability of a particular state to "make the most out of its water systems and achieve sustainable access for livelihood, agriculture, development, hygiene and well-being, while also protecting humans from its potentially destructive effects" (UnWater, 2014). It can also be defined in more specific contexts such as access to clean and potable water. According to the WHO (as cited by Kujinga et al. 2014);[Natural bodies of water – its abudancy and accessibility]
"water security in terms of access to clean water is defined, as the means of having "an improved source (i.e. household connection, public standpipe, borehole, protected dug well, protected spring or rainwater), which is less than 1 km away from its place of use and that it is possible to reliably obtain at least 20 L per member of the household per day" (WHO, 2013).
For this paper, the researcher used this definition to tackle a more critical issue at the grassroots level; that is 'the social (cultural and political) and health problems of water insecurity. This chapter would also discuss how a global issue affects the population in the micro-level. The primary purpose of the first section is to enlighten the readers and show how a general problem like this, pervades even in the level of families, individuals, and social relationship. In the succeeding section, he will try to summarize the mitigation efforts suggested in the literature and other strategies already employed in different parts of the globe to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of achieving a water secured Earth.
The social and political effects of Water insecurity
Water security (or insecurity per se) should not only be analyzed as the result of a state’s hydrologic legacy and its capacity to make the most out of it but, we should also consider its social effects on the society – direct or indirect. To achieve this, the researcher extended his analysis of the issue from political and health problems to social issues of gender inequality and social conflict. For the socio-economic and geographic context, he focused on two specific places on the African continent; Ngamiland, Botswana (Kujinga, Vanderpost, Mmopelwa, & Masamba, 2014) and Harare, Zimbabwe (Chaminuka & Nyatsanza, 2013). These two cases are not necessarily a representation for the whole continent, but still, they serve as good examples since they provide a case where there is the presence of water unsecured urban and semi-urban spots with high cases of water-related diseases, social inequality, conflicts, and tensions. These cases are also important since they have strategic coping mechanisms via the development of social agreements and simple but efficient water infrastructures.
A case study of Ngamiland, Botswana, and Harare, Zimbabwe
Botswana and Zimbabwe are two states on the African continent, both of which have scarce water resources, with water supplies that can go out for a week, for a month, or even for a year. This problem forced its citizens to use untreated water which might result in water-borne diseases such as cholera (Chaminuka & Nyatsanza, 2013) and AIDS (Ashton & Ramasar, 2002). As an example, Youde (2010) provided us a narrative about the outbreak of cholera that happened in Zimbabwe. According to him: its (cholera) spread happened because of the "near collapse of water sanitation infrastructure" which "has dramatically reduced Zimbabweans’ access to clean water and proper sewage treatment systems”.
To make matters worse, the relationship between pandemics and untreated water resources is not unilateral - with the latter leading to the spread of the first. The spread of epidemics like AIDS, malaria, and dengue increases the probability of reducing the water supply, despite the fact that they reduce human population in particular places. When an epidemic strikes the community and reduces the population clean water supply increases, however, this is only if the water reservoirs are efficient. In the case of these countries where water infrastructures are not good enough, an oversupply would just increase the chances of contamination (Ashton & Ramasar, 2002).
As water-dependent creatures, water security also has an effect on our personal hygiene. We are not like other animals that don't need to bathe, brush their teeth, or wash their clothes. Hygiene is an imperative for us and neglecting it could be fatal. However, there are cases in which maintaining proper hygiene is not even option. In the case of Ngamiland, Botswana, bathing is considered a luxury especially during times of water scarcity (Kujinga et al., 2014). In these places, queues for fetching water can go for almost a kilometer. The twenty liters that they were able to get needs to be budgeted for ten (10) days due to community rules and practical issues – such as social conflict caused by hoarders. Excretion is also a major problem in these places. The lack of clear water forces citizens to improperly dispose of their human wastes. This in turn, further contaminates the water supply and leads to water borne diseases.
Water scarcity also has a significant effect on the social system. We all know that during the conception of society, it was imbued with the power to create social inequality. First World states are guilty of this, how much more in places impoverished with the necessities of life. In these locations, social conflicts, tensions, and gender inequalities happen on a larger scale, paralleled with the deteriorating quality of health and sanity. In the examples above (Botswana and Zimbabwe), women and children are both held responsible for fetching water (Chaminuka & Nyatsanza, 2013). In the case of Botswana, there are times when men help in bringing the water, given that they have a functional cart (mechanical or donkey) since they repudiate the physical strain that the activity entails – walking for kilometers and carrying heavy loads (Kujinga et al., 2014). Having no other options, this leads to women taking over the chores despite their slender physique fragile framework. Chores that includes walking for miles or queuing for long periods of time while carrying their child with them. At times, they just ask someone to push their containers forward because they still have to go home to tend to the needs of their family. On one hand, this leads to health problems, such as backaches (due to the heavy load) and arthritic diseases and deformities, due to the immense physical strain in their bone structures (Greer, Hunter, & Jackals, 2010 as cited by (Kujinga et al., 2014)). There are also cases when women engage in ‘sex works’ in exchange for water, for them to save hours of housework (Kujinga et al., 2014). In the case of Harare, women (and some children) usually wake up at four a.m. just to fetch water for their husbands and children (Chaminuka & Nyatsanza, 2013).
As already apparent from exampl...