Sanitation and Wastewater Atlas of Africa

1.2 Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Africa

1.2.1Water resources

surface area. Anthonj et al. (2017) acknowledge that in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, natural wetlands constitute the only accessible water resources, providing water, agricultural potential and livelihoods in otherwise uninhabitable landscapes, which is why they are being used extensively. The degradation and contamination of water resulting from the use of wetlands has the potential to spread disease-causing micro-organisms and enlarge the breeding habitats for disease vectors.

there are over 1,270 dams built across Africa to store and supply water for agriculture and hydropower generation (UNEP 2008). Fifty-three large dams in Africa account for 90 per cent of the total amount of water retained in reservoirs on the continent (UNEP 2008). Much of the dam storage capacity is in South Africa, where there are 589 dams (Tatlock 2006). Africa has swathes of natural water infrastructure in the form of wetlands, which are important as they contain water resources and provide ecological services to maintain ecosystem integrity. According to UNEP (2008), Africa’s wetlands cover approximately 1 per cent of the continent’s total

Africa is the world’s second driest continent after Australia (United Nations Environment Programme [UNEP] 2010). Freshwater is unevenly distributed across its countries and regions, largely due to the variability of rainfall in different climatic zones (FAO 2003), as shown in Figure 1.7. The continent’s renewable water resources average 3,930 cubic kilometres (Figure 1.8), representing less than 9 per cent of the global total (UNEP 2010). The majority of Africa experiences long dry seasons, exceeding five months in some cases (MacDonald and Calow 2009), which result in reliance on groundwater. In addition,

Rainfall patterns

(mm/yr) Mean annual precipitation

Low (0)

High (2 000)

GRID-Arendal/Studio Atlantis 1 000 km

Source: Masih et al., 2014.

Figure 1.7 . Rainfall patterns in Africa

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SANITATION AND WASTEWATER ATLAS OF AFRICA