Driving Development in Africa: Water and Food

So far, this blog has focused on traditional methods of ensuring water and food security like irrigation schemes and groundwater extraction. However, there exist more abstract solutions, including virtual water, that may offer equally promising avenues. Put simply, virtual water measures the water that is 'lost' in the production of any commodity ( Allan, 1997 ). I isolate agricultural commodities due to their water-intensive nature - it requires 1000 cubic metres of water to produce a ton of grain ( Allan, 2003 ). Therefore, virtual water can be harnessed as another method of achieving water and food security. This view argues that the bluewater used in irrigation is an inefficient use of resources when these crops, at least highly water-intensive ones, can be imported from elsewhere ( Zeitoun et al., 2010 ). Whilst we've analysed issues of water and food scarcity on a strictly continental scale, this is a gross simplification of reality. Virtual water allows us to globali...

African nations have adopted a range of innovative solutions to control access to water resources in the face of challenging conditions discussed in this blog. Some have enjoyed more success than others. This post looks at South Africa's system of water permits and, crucially, its impact on the expansion of irrigated agriculture. The water permit system in South Africa is the legacy of colonial histories. Under Dutch rule from 1652 to 1810, water was seen as a public commodity. Between 1810 and 1925, British rulers replaced this with riparian law which favoured land owners. Therefore, water use was divided along racial lines by the end of the 19th century with most water allocated to the white population for commercial agriculture ( Tewari & Oumar, 2013 ). In response, the National Water Act (NWA) of 1998 attempted to balance between efficient use of water, equity and environmental issues, designating the state as the public trustee of the country's water resources. Through...