Measuring the severity of transboundary freshwater conflict: structural vs. behavioural indices in Africa

Abstract

In the global crisis over access to clean, adequate freshwater, Africa is a special case. Not only are many African states under severe water stress, but the continent is one of the most hydrologically interconnected regions on the planet. With 113 rivers, lakes and aquifers that cross an international border, over 60% of Africa's territory falls into a transboundary watershed. Africa's hydrology is interdependent, and mass poverty and political volatility heighten the risk of conflict over freshwater resources. This paper compares two approaches to understanding the severity of transboundary freshwater conflict; one based in behavior and the other based on structural factors unique to each water resource and its users. The goal is to identify Africa's water hot spots, or those areas where violence over water resources is most likely. The broader aim is to better understand how the way we measure severity affects our understanding of freshwater conflict, and how policy-makers might best approach water politics in Africa.

Pathways for building capacity and ensuring effective transboundary water resources management in Africa: Revisiting the key issues, opportunities and challenges

“…More recent perspectives discount this perception in favor of benefit-sharing approaches (see UN-Water, 2009;UNDP-GEF, 2012;Brozek, 2013). The published literature and the case studies presented in this paper indicate that capacity-building interventions can change perceptions and capacitate key players in the TRBM sector to understand and apply key tenets of benefit-sharing and collective action.…”

“…Therefore, training programmes targeting these key result areas and building the capacity of nations and TRBOs to engage effectively with these long-ranging processes would be very useful (see Earle et al, 2010;Brozek, 2013). Conflict prevention is certainly one of the main objectives of transboundary cooperation.…”

“…In some cases, a nation's entire water supply system originates outside its borders and has to rely on the goodwill of the upstream countries to sustain that supply, for example, Egypt (99%); Mauritania (95%); Botswana (94%); and the Gambia (86%) (see Rieu-Clarke et al, 2012). Thus, the continent is one of the most hydrologically interconnected regions on the planet (Brozek, 2013). This scenario suggests that in the face of diminishing global freshwater resources, Africa is a special case.…”