The geopolitics of water in Africa

    Lake Chad is a shallow and endorheic freshwater lake. Located in the climatic part of the Sahel, a climatic band that makes the transition between the Saharan domain in the north and the Saudi domain in the south. It extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. The climate is semi-arid and hot with a very long dry season and a short wet season.The seasons are dry and very intense blown by the Harmathan, a dry and hot wind. It is bordered by four riparian states: Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Chad. An estimated total population of about 45 million for the entire Lake Chad Basin in 2012 according to the Lake Chad Commission figures. This close to the two metropolises Maiduguri in northern Nigeria and the capital of Chad N'Djamena. A region in a state of humanitarian crisis Today Lake Chad is the victim of one of the biggest humanitarian crisis in the world. A vulnerable space where insecurity reigns. Since 2009, we have witnessed the expansion of the terro...

 Since 2015, a persistent drought has affected the West of Cap Province in South Africa. On February 1st, 2018, the city is in a state of natural disaster, reaches a level of water restriction of level 6B (for example,over 200 water collection points will be set up in the municipality in preparation for the taps being shut off. Residents will have to queue up to receive an allocation of 25 litres of water per person, per day..(1)). A consumption of 50 liters per day per minute then becomes the norm necessary to avoid the arrival of the "zero day", where the water would no longer flow to the taps. The region, the metropolis Cape-town and its people are affected by a severe water scarcity (3,8 million of inhabitants are concerned in 2018 (2)). In this article we will take a look at this major crisis, this state of natural disaster mirroring the succession and the failure of political reforms that have succeeded in recent decades. Water management is intimately dependent on...

     Historically, water has always been a source of greed in Africa. Whether through the lush landscape of Victoria Falls discovered by the Scottish explorer David Livingstone in 1855, or with the haunting journey of the young Charles Marlow in search of Colonel Kurtz on the banks of the Congo Rivers. Water is a commodity that will be considered in this blog as a political product. A product of state governance that has evolved during the political challenges of the 20th century. Today, water resources, especially freshwater, are becoming scarce resources, plagued by numerous national and international disputes. In Africa, water shortages are getting worse, the numbers speak for themselves, water becomes the new "Black Gold": Blue Gold.        Faced with this emergency, the notion of "water stress" is introduced to talk about a situation where demand exceeds water resources. Unfortunately, this state of emergency is found in many African co...