Africa’s Emerging Urban Water Challenges 39
It is no longer sufficient to build more water storage or harness more surface water without considering long-term sustainability, the larger watershed, or how wastewater can best be returned to the water system. It is no longer satisfactory to build better drainage to reduce dangerous flooding without making sure that drains are not clogged with solid waste; nor is it appropriate to ignore the sanitation needs of growing urban populations. It has become more difficult to plan for the long term when future conditions are uncertain. Management strategies must be flexible enough to accommodate multiple possible outcomes. Water managers will need to broaden their field of vision to incorporate a wider perspective, and other institutions will need to incorporate water services in their long-term strategies. No single approach is likely to solve the potential water crisis for African cities. Decision makers will need to acknowledge the interrelatedness of challenges and evaluate the multiple pathways toward a solution.
Notes 1. For more information on the financial health of the utilities, see forthcoming city dashboards. http://water.worldbank.org/AfricaIUWM. 2. EMDAT is the Emergency Events Database maintained by the WHO Colla borating Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) at the Universite Catholique Louvain, Belgium. 3. For more information about AICD, go to http://www.infrastructureafrica.org/.