Report warns the world of looming water crisis as climate change bites

The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2016 has painted a gloomy picture of our environmental future.

Climate change brought on by global warming ranks second after terrorism as the biggest threat to human existence. Third is an emerging water crisis.

The potential of climate change exacerbating current water shortages has become very real. According to the report, 70 per cent of the world’s current freshwater is now being used for agriculture. In developing countries like Kenya, the rate goes up to 90 per cent.

Complicated issue

It also calls to notice that 2.7 billion people — or 40 per cent of the world’s population — suffer water shortages for at least a month each year.

A dark cloud of drought and conflict looms unless current water management improves, the report says. Africa is especially projected to face growing competition for water for agriculture, energy, industries and cities.

The same report cites that in Kenya, a water crisis could bring about conflict, especially between nomadic tribes, and further exacerbate the refugee crisis.

Already, pastoral tribes with limited water resources fiercely guard what they have, leading to rivalries the Government has been unable to contain. These clashes over water have turned deadly numerous times, with hundreds losing their lives.

“Four billion people could be living in water-scarce areas by 2050. Eighty to 90 per cent of the scarce water in many of the world’s arid and semi-arid basins is already being used, and over 70 per cent of the world’s major rivers no longer reach the sea,” the report reads.

“Tensions are likely to grow within countries, especially between rural and urban areas, and between poorer and richer areas; also potentially between jurisdictions.”

Water management in Kenya is a complicated issue. It is especially difficult in an economy that has just begun to industrialise, and which needs more and more fresh water to produce energy.

Also, according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey Report 2014, 54 per cent of urban households do not have access to piped water. The figure worsens in rural households where 85 per cent lack access to piped water.

Further, 54 per cent of the Kenyan population does not have access to clean, treated water, and six in 10 households spend more than 30 minutes getting water.

Another study, The Water Crisis in Kenya: Causes, Effects and Solutions, blames Kenya’s water problems on drought, forest degradation, floods, poor management of water supplies and population growth.

Severe drought

The study says over the last decade, the country has experienced a severe drought that has led to the drying of rivers, with most water being used for irrigation rather than human consumption, which has led to households getting limited access to water.

Deforestation has long stood out has a major problem. The largest forest in the country, Mau Forest, distributes water to six lakes, eight wildlife reserves and 10 million people depend its rivers for a living. However, after the issue of settlers invading it got politicised, loggers and farmers have now destroyed a quarter of its 400,000 hectares.

The Government has also struggled to separate water for agriculture from that for human consumption, the study further notes. This is been made more difficult by the decision to make water a human right, which has seen investors shy away from the sector.

The Government in its last Budget pledged to invest in water supply by putting measures in place to control floods and harvest rainwater.

Water supply and sanitation got Sh29.5 billion, while Sh2.1 billion went to water storage and flood control, and Sh12.6 billion to environmental protection, conservation and management. Yet, even with these huge investments, 41 per cent of Kenyans have no access to safe drinking water.

Species diversity

Further, water issues directly affect wildlife, since availability of drinking water is necessary for their survival. This augurs poorly for the tourism sector, which accounts for 11 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Kenya is world renown for its species diversity, and has one of the highest percentages of threatened mammal species.

The Ministry of Water prepared a policy paper in 2006 that sought to cushion the country from a water crisis. This was to be done through working closely with the Nile Basin countries of Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia on utilising water from the Nile, which the region depends on. Nothing much has come of it.

However, Water Principal Secretary Fred Sigor said the country is still committed to working with Nile Basin countries, and will on February 22 hold a two-day meeting with water ministers from these nations to discuss how to manage shared water resources.