38 The Future of Water in African Cities
on watersheds are not well known. There are significant gaps in climate data; hydrometeorological networks are poor; and agencies often do not share data. These data deficiencies complicate accurate analysis and solutions. The knowledge partnerships and collaboration between the scientific and development communities on climate change and water resources should be improved. This is essential to ensure that the latest scientific advances are reflected in development assistance and scientific questions explored are shaped by development needs. It is important that stakeholders at all levels become more aware of the specifics of climate-smart development planning. Data on water supply and sanitation are poor, but better than other water subsectors. Despite significant efforts by the Joint Monitoring Program of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund to systematically track data on access to water services, data quality is not always reliable. Systematic information and data about suppliers’ characteristics and institutional environments are poor when they exist. Often, even the well-performing service providers are unrecognized outside their immediate environments, and lessons learned are not widely shared. The Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD) has made a limited effort to use a specially designed questionnaire on institutional environment, governance structure, and technical and financial performance to collect data covering 51 utilities in 23 countries.3 Utility data are generally more useful to analyze water service issues within a city, but other than IBNET, few comprehensive, clean, datasets exist. This study found that data on water supply, sanitation, flood management, solid waste, and water resources were even scarcer for cities. Some of the existing databases draw on household surveys, which might differentiate between urban and rural areas, but few report data at the city level.
The Current Way in Which We View Urban Water Systems Might Hinder Our Ability to Respond to Future Challenges The challenge of servicing more people with scarcer water resources requires that we critically reappraise our current perspective on urban water management. Water demand is growing due to population growth and rising incomes. Supply is shrinking due to competing water users, deteriorating water quality, and overexploitation. And uncertainty about future conditions is becoming more acute because of climate change and shifting economies. We need to reconsider water use practices and develop strategies that can respond to all these challenges simultaneously.