Water and Politics in Africa

     Dear readers,       Following an exciting seminar where I had the chance to talk one-on-one with Professor Richard Taylor and Professor Julian R. Thompson, and on the advice of the latter, I decided to look at algaculture in Zanzibar. You will see that this fascinating case study intersects with most of the blog thematics. To begin with, you can listen to this podcast on the BBC website from the "Crossing Continents" series ( Chloe Hadjimatheou, 2018) untitled "Seaweed, Sex and Liberation in Zanzibar". On the BBC website as well, please read Lucy Ash's very good paper ("The crop that put women on top in Zanzibar", 2018).  BBC, Lucy Ash, 2018      Let's start by going back to the origins of seaweed production. If seaweed farming started at the end of the 19th century ( "Les pêcheuses d'algues de Zanzibar", Arte, 2017 ), it only began in Zanzibar in 1989, which is nowadays the 3rd largest producer in the world behind Indonesia ...

       Hi dear reader,       I hope you enjoyed my last post on the Kala Fleming Ted Talk . How to write a blog about “Water and Politics” without dealing with the last COP26 that took place in Glasgow (Scotland) from 31 st October to 12 th November? So, let's take a closer look at this conference together!      To begin with, let's list again the major water-related climate changes that should have been so many red flags prompting the participating leaders to formulate ambitious new commitments at COP26. In her article published in The Guardian  on 10 th November 2021, the journalist Sarah Johnson recalls that according to this 2016 study , “two-thirds of the global population, four billion people, faced water shortages, and many were at increased risk of floods and droughts brought on by the climate crisis”. Beyond the increasingly frequent and extreme floods and droughts, she also mentions the change in rainfall patte...

       Hi !      I hope you enjoyed reading my previous post on climate migrants! Today, I'm writing to share with you a very inspiring Ted Talk in which Kala Fleming of IBM Research Africa explains her idea of "digital aquifers" which is closely related to our "Water and Development in Africa" module! After studying and working in the United States many years, Kala Fleming is now based in Kenya. The video that you can find below is entitled "Easing Water Scarcity by Understanding When and Where it Flows". Kala Fleming's Ted Talk - TED@IBM - October 2015      Her thesis is that the virtual digitalization of groundwater enables not only better planning and distribution but also offers much improved economic growth opportunities. According to her, there is not a lack of water in Africa. This reminds me of the statement of Claude Jamati ("Africa does not lack water") on whose work ( L'Afrique et l'eau , 2014 ) I focused among ot...

     Hello!       After having tackled the issue of the very political financing of water infrastructures in Africa, we are going to reflect today on the legal status of climate refugees. I chose to focus on this topic because it also intersects with environmental change. Moreover, the notion of "climate refugee" was unclear to me and I thought it was crucial to clarify it as COP 26 approaches.       According to a report published by UC Berkeley's Othering & Belonging Institute  (2019), "Ethiopia accounts for less than 1 percent of total global CO2 emissions, but it faces particularly intense effects of the climate crisis." For example, "in 2015, Ethiopia experienced one of its worst droughts in 50 years due to the failure of two consecutive rainy seasons. This drought led to increased food insecurity and the displacement of 280,000 people" (p. 22). The fact that the countries that have contributed the least...

     For most of us, our first thought about water in Africa is that Africa lacks water. Images of deserts and arid lands cracked by drought come to mind. But is this preconception really true? A member of the steering committee of the African Water Association (AAE), Claude Jamati edited the collective work entitled L'Afrique et l'eau (2014) and refutes this well by stating that "Africa does not lack water but distribution and sanitation infrastructures." Similarly, Mohamed El-Azizi, director of water and sanitation at the African Development Bank, makes the same observation: "Africa has plenty of water but no water to drink" ( Heuclin & Hewitt, 2015 ).      The real challenge linked to water is therefore its unequal distribution, which compromises the economic development of certain territories, as its presence is a guarantee of growth and essential to the majority of economic activities. Let's take the example of the great variability of rain...

       Hi!      My first post aims to introduce you to a little bit of who I am and why I chose the theme “Water and Politics”. I am an affiliate student at UCL in the Economics department and my home university is Sciences Po Paris so the thematic choice was obvious. During my first two years at Sciences Po, I studied in the Europe-Africa program on the Reims campus and started learning Swahili! I am therefore particularly curious to learn more about the issue of water in the East African region and I am very interested in this course which intersects all my interests by analyzing the African continent under the prism of development! During my second year at Sciences Po, Benjamin Marx's course "Economics of Development" was my first introduction to understanding the specific economic challenges of developing countries, revealing to me the full extent of the continent's potential for growth and influence.      The theme "Water and Po...