Final post, tying it all together
It's been a journey and I have enjoyed the process, unfortunately due to having planned a lot of travel over the next few weeks for competitions this post will be the last. In this post I aim to tie it all together and see where we have gone on our journey.
So far in this blog I have not really focused on the interaction between food and water and have only tackled each issue separately in different posts. Today, I will attempt to integrate the two and explain the relationship between food and water. With the less predictable and reliable rainfall globally it is likely we will see a 'change in growing seasons', the implications of this are that it is highly likely that the current, standard set of operational practices emloyed for agriculture will simply no longer be applicable.
Understandably, climate change is a major threat to food and water security in Sub Saharan Africa - in fact some would say that it is the single largest threat to food and water security within Africa. With a double edged sword of temperature change and decreased prdictability of rainfall it poses the largest threat to the future of food and water in Africa with crop tolerances to temperature being tested at the same time as their resilience to less latent soil moisture. With a greater dependence on groundwater for life to exist there comes a greater necessity to capitalise on any rainfall that does occur, there needs to be a huge revolution when it comes to the way in which water is stored in sub-Saharan Africa so as to focus on the longevity of the water supply for tackling periods of intense drought. Climate change is coupled with the immense growth expected in the sub-Saharan region in which the population of 300million today is predicted to double to be around 600million by 2050. In researching this statistic the need for increased water usage becomes hugely apparent, to provide an individual with a diet of around 2000kcal per day a huge water input of around 2000 liters is required when you do the maths it shows that water usage will at least double, and then possibly double again due to hostile conditions for crops.
So far in this blog I have not really focused on the interaction between food and water and have only tackled each issue separately in different posts. Today, I will attempt to integrate the two and explain the relationship between food and water. With the less predictable and reliable rainfall globally it is likely we will see a 'change in growing seasons', the implications of this are that it is highly likely that the current, standard set of operational practices emloyed for agriculture will simply no longer be applicable.
Understandably, climate change is a major threat to food and water security in Sub Saharan Africa - in fact some would say that it is the single largest threat to food and water security within Africa. With a double edged sword of temperature change and decreased prdictability of rainfall it poses the largest threat to the future of food and water in Africa with crop tolerances to temperature being tested at the same time as their resilience to less latent soil moisture. With a greater dependence on groundwater for life to exist there comes a greater necessity to capitalise on any rainfall that does occur, there needs to be a huge revolution when it comes to the way in which water is stored in sub-Saharan Africa so as to focus on the longevity of the water supply for tackling periods of intense drought. Climate change is coupled with the immense growth expected in the sub-Saharan region in which the population of 300million today is predicted to double to be around 600million by 2050. In researching this statistic the need for increased water usage becomes hugely apparent, to provide an individual with a diet of around 2000kcal per day a huge water input of around 2000 liters is required when you do the maths it shows that water usage will at least double, and then possibly double again due to hostile conditions for crops.
With this increased temperature, and decreased rain comes a decline in soil moisture which is hugely problematic when considering the conditions required by crop growth, it also has the potential to lead to extreme desertification on unprecedented levels, as shown in the fourth blog this will lead to competition for resources, and as resources become increasingly scarce the geopolitical implications on security become somewhat alarming. There is a very real risk of huge conflict breaking due to water scarcity - a population that has lost everything no longer has anything to lose. Water resource based conflict will grow, and it already has started to in the Sub Saharan countries in Africa, with a greater focus on mediation and community integration to work together, share resources and develop together development will happen at a faster rate and food and water security will improve. Another element of resource based conflict is the furether impact it will have on food and water production in Africa, when there is conflict farmers are unable to farm their land leading to a decrease in crop production which is makes a bad situation a lot worse ( Messer and Cohen, 2004)
It is therefore imperative that sustainable development goals 2 and 6 are met with great expediance, there are a huge number of charities, scientiest, and organisations focused on improving the situation in Africa, if you feel compelled to donate please go ahead and give to Wateraid or one of the many other charities out there to help aid the process and speed of development. Top down schemes are proving ineffective so organisations that consult with the local communites and listen to indigenous knowledge and construct water distribution and collection methods that will be effective and last well in the community are invaluable. These bottom-up schemes take time due to the sensitive cultural nature of the mission, imposing western values and produce on rural communities often leads to outbreaks of violence and resources provided often break or are vandalised. Public participation greatly increases sustainability of projects part of this is due to sexism which is discussed in an earlier blog post (vis a vis women collecting water and equality).
It is therefore imperative that sustainable development goals 2 and 6 are met with great expediance, there are a huge number of charities, scientiest, and organisations focused on improving the situation in Africa, if you feel compelled to donate please go ahead and give to Wateraid or one of the many other charities out there to help aid the process and speed of development. Top down schemes are proving ineffective so organisations that consult with the local communites and listen to indigenous knowledge and construct water distribution and collection methods that will be effective and last well in the community are invaluable. These bottom-up schemes take time due to the sensitive cultural nature of the mission, imposing western values and produce on rural communities often leads to outbreaks of violence and resources provided often break or are vandalised. Public participation greatly increases sustainability of projects part of this is due to sexism which is discussed in an earlier blog post (vis a vis women collecting water and equality).
Another key
area to address is the economics of agriculture within the region. With 80% of
the sub-Saharan work force embroiled in agricuture it becomes clear where the
regions income comes from. One of the key issues with this is that food
imported into the area is actually more economically viable than food grown in
the area due to production costs of course, this does not apply in the
case of subsistence where the farmer eats what they grow. With a loss of
reliable rainfall and produce comes a loss of reliable income which could see
development regressing instead of progressin.
The relationship between food and water is inescapable, without water you cannot have food therefore to solve Africa's food problems you must first solve Africa's water issues. For the betterment of African society it is a moral imperative for action to be taken. Thank you for taking the time to read and learn with me, I hope you have found it as beeficial and eye-opening as I have.
Thats all for now.
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