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| [PHOTO: Joshua Davis/Flickr/CC BY-SA 2.0] |
Dakar, Senegal: As Africa urbanizes at a faster rate than any other region
in the world, a more integrated approach to urban water management is needed to
solve complex water challenges in Africa’s teeming, thirsty cities, making them
more sustainable and resilient, says a World Bank report presented last week at the
AfriCities Summit in Dakar, Senegal.
The report collates lessons of experience
from 31 cities in Africa and globally, and shows how such approaches are
leading to home-grown innovative solutions that could help guide the design of
plans elsewhere.
The World Bank report, “The Future of Water in African
Cities: Why Waste Water?”aims to change the way policy makers think about urban
water management, planning, and project design in Africa.
It argues that by
adopting integrated urban water management (IUWM) approaches, policy makers in
African cities have a real chance to address diverse issues such as increased
competition for water with upstream water users, improve urban planning by understanding
water’s interaction with other sectors, and in the face of a changing climate,
secure resilience in an uncertain future by relying on a diversity of water
sources.
“Solving the challenge of urban water management is critical
to unlocking the economic potential of Africa’s cities and improving the lives
of city residents,” said Alexander Bakalian, World Bank Sector Manager for
Urban Development and Services in the Africa Region.“We need to understand how
water is linked across sectors and innovate in the way we do project planning
and implementation. It is noteworthy that some cities in Africa have started to
consider integrated planning of water resources as part of their city
development strategies.”
African cities are growing at 3.9 percent annually, the
highest in the world, and existing water management systems cannot keep up with
growing demand. Studies project that
over the next 25 years, water demand will almost quadruple — a much faster
growth rate than any other region in the world. Currently, about 320 million
Africans live in urban areas, a number projected to rise to 654 million by
2030. Population growth and growing
water needs – for municipal, industrial, and ecological purposes – will all combine
to put greater pressure on already scarce and dwindling water resources.
The IUWM approach seeks to improve urban water systems by
urging policy makers to adopt a holistic view of all components of the urban
water cycle and ask critical questions such as:
How is upstream land use and irrigation impacting water availability and
quality downstream? Are pit latrines and poor sanitation conditions
contaminating groundwater? Is solid waste clogging drains and thus causing
flooding? Does water for street cleaning and parks have to be potable? Is water
optimized for its multiple uses – drinking irrigation, and manufacturing? Policymakers should recognize that IUWM is
about “doing things differently,” rather than about “doing different things.”
"Urban water infrastructure in the future will look quite
different compared to now. It will consider water scarcity and quality, as well
as energy use and generation in an entirely different way,” said Julia Bucknall, Sector Manager, Water Unit at the World
Bank. “While most cities in Europe and
North America will have to rebuild, the fast-growing cities of Africa have a
chance to do it right first time. This will require bold leadership but we have
seen many African leaders who see the opportunities this new approach offers
and we are excited to support them."