Closer to Home

Welcome to my new blog, Droughts & Floods. Droughts & Floods is my personal platform to develop my perspectives on the topic of water and food in the African continent.

Water is an issue that is close to my heart and is a matter which is much closer to home than we think. A lack of sufficient water affects us in many ways and has impacts on us that we do not realise. Droughts and floods are not only experienced in Africa but also in the UK, as seen in dramatic events such as the 2009 Cumbrian floods, which left over 1000 homes without power (BBC 2009). I have also experienced hose pipe bans in London, which has meant that water scarcity has hit closer to home. 

My mother often shares stories about her life in rural northern Sri Lanka. She would have to wake up at 5 o’clock in the morning and travel to her local well with the other village girls to collect water before school. Having grown up in the UK however, there is a sense that water is in abundance as we take water for granted from our taps. Hearing stores from my parents about village life in Sri Lanka has instilled the value of water from such a young age. My father would also share stories about difficult living conditions in war-torn Sri Lanka, where going to bed hungry was not uncommon. 

Figure 1: My grandmother cooking for her family and children

Figure 2: My grandmother utilised indigenous knowledge whilst farming

Figure 3: A reservoir near my father's house in Sri Lanka

Figure 4: The local villagers enjoying water

Figure 5: My grandmother hard at work

Figure 6: My mother collecting water from a local well in rural Sri Lanka

You’re probably wondering why I’m sharing these family photos with you. After all, you guessed it, Sri Lanka is not in Africa. Firstly, I wanted to shed some light as to my background and as to where my passion for water and development stems from. Secondly, I wanted this blog to be personal as well as academic. I didn’t want this blog to be another monotonous blog; I wanted you to get to know me. Finally, within the theme of water and food in Africa, there are a number of sub themes which I will explore throughout the course of this blog. These sub themes are evident in the photographs. For example, Figure 3 is an image that my father took of a reservoir in Jaffna, and this blog will explore small and large scale irrigation schemes in more depth. Similarly, Figure 2 is an image of my grandmother utilising her unique farming methods. In other words, she is using indigenous knowledge to make the most of the water available to her. These pictures capture a part of my life, my upbringing and my home.

Setting the scene for my blog, Africa’s situation is heart-breaking. It is a continent rife with poverty and malnutrition, where one quarter of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is undernourished (Rockström and Falkenmark 2015). Double this figure live in extreme poverty and 20% face severe water shortages (ibid). Recent significant increases in population growth has meant that there are ever increasing stresses on food security (ibid). Not only this, the distribution of this population is important to consider. 40% of this population live in arid to dry sub-humid zones and in areas where surface runoff is too low to support irrigation (see Fig 7). 

Figure 7: Aridity Zones. Source: (Rockstrom and Falkenmark 2015)

My blog title, Droughts & Floods, also links into a couple more issues. Climate change is going to enhance the variability of droughts and floods in the future (Hirabayashi et al. 2013). For example, climate change is expected to cause an alteration in the seasonality of the monsoon in West Africa (Sultan et al 2014). The central Sahel region will experience greater rainfall overall which is contrasted with less rainfall expected in the west (ibid).  It is important to note that Africa is not a homogenous continent, but is extremely diverse socially, economically and environmentally.  The situation is not the same everywhere in Africa and will also vary on local and national scales. Therefore, different issues need to be dealt with in unique ways.

Another way that the issue may be closer to home is through virtual water. Water scarce countries have experienced an increase in water resources available to them, by globalisation. By trading food which has used water to grow in another country, there is a hidden flow of embedded water (Konar and Caylor 2013). For example, when food is exported to a country in North Africa, home to the biggest net virtual water importers in the world (Mekonnen and Hoekstra 2011), the burden of water is transferred to the exporting country, closer to home. 

The issue of water and food is closer to home because even though my blog’s focus is on Africa, environmental refugees (ERs) are found internationally. Environmental refugees can be defined as ‘those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat […] because of a marked environmental disruption’ (El-Hinnawi 1985: 4-5). In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the number of environmental refugees is projected to increase dramatically from roughly 7 million in the 1990s to 200 million in 2050 (Epule et al.  2015). Drought and land degradation, which are factors ultimately leading to food insecurity, are the main drivers for ERs (ibid). The main destinations for these ERs are North Africa and Europe which therefore creates a number of social, economic, political and environmental problems in these areas, closer to home (ibid). Furthermore, political and moral obligations means that aid which is directed towards ERs from Africa is financed from sources closer to home; the financial burden is placed on us.

Problems of water and food in Africa should be treated as if they are closer to home rather than out there. This way, positive actions can be implemented quicker.

List of References

BBC (2009) ‘Cumbria flood areas braced for more rain’ (WWW) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8371796.stm; accessed 09/10/2017).

El-Hinnawi, E. (1985). Environmental refugees. Nairobi: United Nations Environment Programme.

Epule, T. E., C. Peng and L. Lepage (2015) ‘Environmental refugees in sub-Saharan Africa: a review of perspectives on the trends, causes, challenges and way forward’, GeoJournal, 80, 1, 79-92.

Hirabayashi, Y., R. Mahendran, S. Koirala, L. Konoshima, D. Yamazaki, S. Watanabe and S. Kanae (2013) ‘Global flood risk under climate change’, Nature Climate Change, 3, 9, 816-821.

Konar, M. and K. K. Caylor (2013) ‘Virtual water trade and development in Africa’, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 17, 10, 3969.

Mekonnen, M. M. and A. Y. Hoekstra (2011) National water footprint accounts: the green, blue and grey water footprint of production and consumption.

Rockström, J. and M. Falkenmark (2015) ‘Increase water harvesting in Africa’, Nature, 519, 7543, 283.

Sultan, B., K. Guan, M. Kouressy, M. Biasutti, C. Piani, G. L. Hammer and D. B. Lobell (2014) ‘Robust features of future climate change impacts on sorghum yields in West Africa’, Environmental Research Letters, 9, 10, 104006.