[LUM#15] Water, a challenge for cities

[LUM Magazine] - Published on January 12, 2022 in Science-Society

Good quality water in sufficient quantities is not a given. It is even a crucial issue for African cities, which are seeing their population growing day by day, but lack water distribution and sanitation infrastructure water distribution and sanitation to keep pace with this population growth.

On the blue planet, more than 2 billion people do not have access to good quality water. The majority of them live in Africa, a continent of contrasts, where water is abundant in some places and dramatically lacking in others. "The entire sub-Saharan belt is suffering from a worsening resource deficit," warns Eric Servat. Groundwater levels are very low, and some rivers have completely dried up," explains the director of the UNESCO International Center for Water, ICIREWARD. This critical situation is exacerbated by global warming, which is accompanied by a decrease in rainfall.

Climate refugees

While access to water is a global problem, it is a particular challenge in cities, "a challenge that we do not yet fully understand, " says Eric Servat. "Every day, thousands of people are leaving their homes in rural areas that have become uninhabitable, whether due to climate change or other causes such as terrorism." These climate refugees are moving to cities. As a result, urban populations are exploding and megacities with more than 10 million inhabitants are multiplying.

While urbanization is a global trend—it is estimated that by 2050, nearly 70% of the world's population will live in cities—this phenomenon raises issues specific to Africa. New urban dwellers there suffer a double penalty: "they have left everything behind to come to these big cities where they don't understand the rules, and where they are crammed into precarious housing, often without access to clean water." The cause? "These cities are sorely lacking in infrastructure, particularly drinking water distribution and sanitation networks," explains Eric Servat.

Disease vector

This is a real public health issue, because while water is the source of life, it is also a major vector for disease. "In the absence of sanitation systems, polluted water seeps into the ground. It then directly pollutes the water table and contaminates a resource that is already scarce in some areas, " explains Eric Servat. "On average, every day around the world, 1,400 children under the age of 5 die from diarrheal diseases often caused by unsafe drinking water, " laments the hydrologist.

So how can we provide sufficient quantities of high-quality water? Although membrane filtration and seawater desalination systems exist to produce drinking water, they are "far from being able to meet the entire demand." Making water drinkable and distributing it in sufficient quantities requires the installation of heavy infrastructure to pump water from aquifers or fetch it from lakes that are sometimes located very far away."

Investment gap

Infrastructure is a key element in the strategy for access to water. "In a context of limited resources, water is too often considered a poor relation in the policies implemented in African countries, " notes Eric Servat. The result is a significant investment deficit in this area and a glaring lack of infrastructure, which makes the situation of the populations very precarious.

Kōichirō Matsuura had already made this observation years ago: "Despite the importance of water in all aspects of human life, the sector suffers from a chronic lack of political support, inadequate governance, and significant underinvestment, " noted the former Director-General of UNESCO. "Kōichirō Matsuura also stressed the urgency of an action plan if we want to avoid a global water crisis," adds Eric Servat." These words were spoken at the beginning of this century, but they remain highly relevant today!"

The burden of fetching water on girls

Walking for hours to fetch drinking water. Walking ever further in search of this increasingly scarce blue gold. This is the daily reality for millions of young girls in Africa who are responsible for supplying water to their households. These are hours spent away from school, as Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, pointed out on World Water Day on March 22, 2020: "The involvement of women and girls in 'water chores' represents hundreds of millions of hours during which they do not go to school and do not have access to an education that could empower them and make them responsible citizens, free to make their own choices."

"The role of women in relation to water has a real impact on society, particularly in terms of democracy," adds Eric Servat. The director of the UNESCO International Center dedicated to water has therefore decided to get involved in this fight. "We have contacted two UNESCO Chairs working on water and gender issues in Togo and Côte d'Ivoire, which have been active in the field for 15 years," explains the researcher, who hopes to establish partnerships with these Chairs, which will be present at the New Africa-France Summit in Montpellier in October 2021. This fight also involves training: "The scientific community in the North can contribute to the training of female students in the field of water."

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