Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! Since this is my first blog post, I'm going to briefly introduce my chosen topic - Hydropolitics of Transboundary Waters - and explain its increasing importance in our world and particularly, Africa.

First and foremost, I think it will be beneficial to define a couple of key terms. Firstly, 'hydropolitics' is the systematic study of conflict and cooperation between states over water resources that transcend international borders (Elhance, 1999). Secondly, 'transboundary water' refers to rivers, lakes, inland water as a whole and aquifers (which cross a national or international boundary); explicitly excluding open oceans, territorial seas and coastal waters (UN Water, 2008).

The social, political and economic implications relating to a low access of water and unsustainable usage of shared water resources are enormous and should not be underestimated. Therefore, I will be delving deeper and exploring these themes to gain a greater understanding of the impacts caused at local, national and international levels.

To add some colour to the picture, I also think it's important to note that 97% of water on Earth is seawater and the remaining 3% is freshwater. Two thirds of this freshwater is locked in icecaps and glaciers, with only a small proportion of the remaining third being accessible as the rest lies too far underground to exploit (Ohlsson, 1995; Postel, 1992; Gleick, 1993). In the context of the African continent, we therefore inevitably have the problem of an exorbitant demand for water (further increasing due to a growing African population) outstripping the limited supply.

Furthermore, it is also predicted that water will become the "next oil" of the 21st Century (Lawrence et al, 2002). Former World Bank Vice President Ismail Serageldin said, "many of the wars of the 20th Century were about oil, but wars of the 21st Century will be over water unless we change the way we manage water." (Connell, 2013). To add to this, the UN World Water Development Report indicates that in the next 20 years, the quantity of water available to everyone is predicted to decrease by 30% (WWDR, 2003). This is bad news considering the increased dependence on water in a number of industries - agriculture, high-tech manufacturing and energy production.

Of course, this will lead to more water conflicts, particularly in Africa, where there are a large number of shared water resources such as transboundary aquifers.

Watch the following video to gain a better understanding of the water crisis affecting Africa:

Over the next couple of months, I will focus my discussion on transboundary groundwater, particularly that contained within aquifers. I believe this is an interesting and thought-provoking component within the topic and I hope my blog posts will promote discussion from my classmates, which in part will inform my direction over the following weeks.

References:

Elhance, A. (1999). Hydropolitics in the Third World. Washington, D.C.: United States                 Institute of Peace Press.

Connell, D. (2013). Global Water Forum | Water wars, maybe, but who is the enemy?.    [online] Globalwaterforum.org. Available at:             http://www.globalwaterforum.org/2013/04/10/water-wars-maybe-but-who-is-the-        enemy/ [Accessed 16 Oct. 2015].

Gleick, P. (1993). Water and Conflict: Fresh Water Resources and International   Security. International Security, 18(1), p.79.

Lawrence, P., Meigh, J. and Sullivan, C. (2002). The Water Poverty Index: an International         Comparison.

Ohlsson, L. (1995). Hydropolitics. Dhaka: University Press.

Postel, S. (1992). Last oasis. New York: W.W. Norton.

UNESCO, (2015). The United Nations World Water Development Report 2015. [online]   Available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002318/231823E.pdf     [Accessed 16 Oct. 2015].

UN Water, (2015). Transboundary Waters: Sharing Benefits, Sharing Responsibilities.    [online] Available at:             http://www.unwater.org/downloads/UNW_TRANSBOUNDARY.pdf [Accessed 30           Dec.     2015].