Rural Water Management in Africa: The Impact of Customary Institu ...

Economic water scarcity and stress occur mainly due to lack of water infrastructure. Countries with economic water scarcity and stress have sufficient water resources to meet their primary water supply needs, but lack financial resources, economic incentives, and development capacity to invest in water management and development.⁴⁴ This condition is experienced by the majority of poor people in SSA, especially in rural areas. Economic water scarcity and stress may also be caused by institutional failures. This can occur in a situation where a country has available water resources and infrastructure, but people are water poor. Water poverty can occur when people are landless or do not have rights to land or water.

In SSA, physical water scarcity is experienced by arid areas of northern and southern Africa. Most SSA countries are classified as economically water scarce or stressed mainly because even though water resources are abundant, water development and management is still a big problem. Currently, northern Africa is facing the worst water situation in Africa. More countries (eleven) are expected to experience economic water scarcity and stress in the next twenty years. Thus, by the year 2015, it is expected that about twenty-five African countries (including Tanzania) will be experiencing water scarcity or water stress, as shown in tables 1.1 and 1.2 and figure 1.2.

Tables 1.1 and 1.2 indicate that per-capita water availability is decreasing in twenty-five African countries. The factors contributing to decreasing water availability are inadequate assessment and underdevelopment of water resources, little stakeholder and community participation in setting water policies and laws, the lack of technical and institutional infrastructure, and the lack of investment in water resource development. The situation is worse in rural areas where only 50 percent of the population has access to safe water.⁴⁵

The water situation in Africa indicates that as the demand of water continues to grow, African countries will need to manage their water resources in a more sustainable way. Sustainable water management refers to water-management systems that will satisfy the changing demands on water resources and take into account the needs of present and future water users without any degradation of water resources.