4 The Future of Water in African Cities
out Africa, and the consequences are now felt in cities that did not imagine they would face shortages. Despite successes, African cities have difficulty meeting the water challenge today. Between 2000 and 2010, 83 million urban Africans gained access to improved water and 42 million gained access to improved sanitation. But urban population increases moderated these successes, leaving the share of the population with access to improved water and sanitation unchanged at 83 percent and 43 percent respectively. Given the compound challenge of increases in demand for water and decreases in traditional supply sources, it is unlikely that the traditional approach of one source, one system, and one discharge can close the water gap.
Opportunities for Change Challenges provide opportunities. Africa’s rapid growth means that half of the city of 2035 has not yet been built. New water management systems may not be burdened with old infrastructure or approaches. Now is the time to plan for the future using state-of-the-art technologies and innovative management systems. The diverse, integrated approaches proposed in this book could lead to a major change in just 20 years. More importantly, these approaches are by nature flexible and adaptive. Because they tend to work on a smaller scale and account for the links between sectors, these methods can accommodate a broader range of future conditions than a traditional, centralized system. Given the uncertainties about the future growth patterns and climate conditions of African cities, this flexibility is a critical asset of an integrated approach to water management. This book argues that a more integrated, sustainable, and flexible approach is needed in Africa, wanted by African city leaders, and is implementable. The first steps to implementation include demonstration projects, transfer of knowledge from other regions, and modification of the way urban water projects are planned, designed, and realized. This study conducted a review of the challenges and capacity of 31 cities in Africa. Water-related capacities and challenges were assessed relative to other African cities. Most of the cities with relatively large challenges also have relatively high capacity (see Figure 1), although this capacity might still be low compared to the daunting nature of the challenges. These cities might be ready to begin a dialogue about the applicability of IUWM for their water needs. Other cities clearly need to build capacity as a first step toward managing their water in a more integrated way.