36 The Future of Water in African Cities
is bound to deteriorate drastically. As the town encroaches upon the lake’s catchment, increased erosion will lead to the siltation of the lake, which will be further deteriorated by increased discharge of untreated wastewater from the city’s growing population and increased water abstraction. It is in the interest of all stakeholders (including the city’s industries) to preserve the lake’s water quantity and quality by incorporating water into urban planning and industrial development plans.
Solving the Urban Water Challenge Is Essential to Achieve Growth and to Reduce Poverty Urbanization is driving Africa’s economic growth. Africa’s urban population growth since 1960 has led to a concentration of population around major cities. Though urbanization is not uniform across the African continent and its causes are contested (Potts, 2012), urban population will exceed rural population in the next two decades. Concentration of production and income is even more pronounced than concentration of population (World Bank, 2011a). It is estimated that by 2025, 18 African cities (including Cairo, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos, and Luanda) will control combined spending power of US$1.3 trillion, each with a GDP of over US$100 billion (McKinsey, 2011). In most African countries, particularly the lower-income countries, insufficient infrastructure is a major constraint to doing business, and is found to depress firm productivity by about 40 percent. For most countries, the negative impact of deficient infrastructure is at least as large as that associated with corruption, crime, financial markets, and red tape (AICD, 2011). In general, adequate supply of electricity has the biggest impact on productivity, but transport, water, and sanitation are close behind. Furthermore, in several countries hydropower is a major source of electricity. Water is central to Africa’s development prospects, just as it has been the source of many of its past woes. It is clear that additional investments in water resources will be needed if Africa is to meet its needs for economical electric power; reliable supplies of water for irrigated agriculture, household consumption, and sanitation; and flood and flow control. It is equally clear that inadequate development and poor management of water have contributed to the droughts and floods that have devastated livelihoods, sparked resource-based conflicts, and undermined growth in Africa. Water scarcity impacts negatively on production and incomes in cities due to extra time spent to get water, extra costs of abstraction (for example, deeper boreholes), and production lost due to disruptions to energy