Through the lens - A perspective on water and food in Africa

Fig. 1: The Great Renaissance Dam ( Middle East Monitor ) For centuries the river Nile has been the elixir of life for millions of people living in the drylands of Egypt. The never-ending flow of water, bringing fertile silts and all-so-rare freshwater, has given birth to the ancient Egyptian culture that dominated the regions for centuries. Due to its low annual rainfall and high evaporation rate Egypt is highly dependent on freshwater sources coming from the river Nile, whereas 90 % of its resources originate outside the Egyptian border ( Gouda 2017 ). This puts Egypt in a particularly vulnerable position, as it´s agriculture is adapted to live in tune with the seasonal and trans-annual changes of the river discharge and it relies heavily on unrestricted accessibility of the Nile´s resources. This, however, was challenged when Ethiopia had announced to build one of the world´s largest dams, the Great Renaissance Dam (GERD) (see Fig.1), in 2011. The dam will give Ethiopia

As I mentioned in my previous post, groundwater irrigation (GWI) has a huge potential for agriculture in Africa, but is it THE solution? Well, let´s say it depends. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations renewable groundwater supply is about 1,500 km3/yr in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) which is “more than 3 times the per capita groundwater availability of China” ( Giordano 2005: 312 ), where groundwater supply has triggered a huge part of the Green Revolution . Similarly, it is suggested that GWI may trigger a similar technological development in SSA by securing rural livelihoods and thereby setting the basis for food production. But, the development of GWI is still rather limited, as only 3.3% of arable land is irrigated ( Villholth 2013 ).  Fig. 1: Groundwater irrigation in Ghana ( Villholth and Altchenko 2016 ) However, due to increasing rainfall variability, small-scale farmers more and more see groundwater as a more reliable sou