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sector-by-sector opportunities: water

Harnessing the power of water

The Gariep dam on the Orange river in South Africa. Hydropower could help to meet the continent’s energy requirements

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sector-by-sector opportunities: water

Water has always posed challenges for Africa, but plans are in place to deliver positive change across the continent – enhancing irrigation, improving sanitation and increasing the use of water for energy. Stephen Williams explains

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any of the crucial development challenges that confront Africa today could be met by harnessing the power of water. Giant hydroelectric schemes have the potential to close the energy gap; increased use of irrigation would raise agricultural production; and clean drinking water would wipe out the waterborne diseases that blight the lives of many Africans. Margaret Catley-Carlson, vice-chair of the World Economic Forum, says: “Water is an astonishingly complex and subtle force in an economy. It is the single constraint on the expansion of every city, and bankers and corporate executives have cited it as the only natural limit to economic growth.” In 2008, however, the World Bank’s Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic Study reported that only 58 percent of households in Africa had ‘ready’ access to water, and that just 31 percent possessed basic sanitation facilities. There has been some progress since, but the African Union (AU) is keen to increase the pace of change and is striving to meet the challenges posed by water scarcity. These challenges, outlined nearly 10 years ago by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), are that: “Africa’s share of water on a per capita basis is estimated to have declined by as much as 50 percent since 1950. Currently, 14 African countries experience water stress or water scarcity, with those in Northern Africa facing the worst prospects. A further 11 countries will belong to this category of countries in the next 25 years, bringing the number to more than half of African countries. It has been estimated that by 2025 more than 230 million people (16 percent of Africa’s population) will be living in countries facing water scarcity and more than 460 million (32 percent of Africa’s population) will be living in water-stressed countries.” Last January, the Summit of African Heads of State and Government of the AU recommended the adoption of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA). A joint initiative by the AU, NEPAD and the African Development

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Bank (AfDB), PIDA has been mandated to accelerate the development of Africa’s regional and continental infrastructure. PIDA’s remit includes a specific responsibility to promote transboundary water management in order to accelerate the physical integration of Africa, boost intra-African trade, and raise Africa’s competitiveness in the global economy. The securing of water resources and water basins for future generations is central to the long-term aspirations of PIDA. NEPAD has chosen seven trans-boundary water basins, holding 80 percent of the continent’s water resources, as the focus of its Short-Term Action Plan, with the aim of creating fully functioning, integrated water-basin management systems.

Waterway access The often-overlooked potential of developing trans-boundary inland waterways to transport people and goods is also receiving attention. One such project is the Shire-Zambezi waterway to connect landlocked Malawi and, by extension,

Increased use of irrigation would raise agricultural production, and clean drinking water would wipe out waterborne diseases Zambia with the Indian Ocean. The Shire river flows into the Zambezi river that, for its part, flows into the Indian Ocean via Chinde Port in Mozambique. In total, this route is about 238km long, and would transform central-southern Africa’s ability to export bulk commodities, currently transported by road, to world markets. Although the project has been long delayed since its inception in 2007, all parties have expressed a desire for its completion, and intergovernmental delegations met in Maputo, Mozambique, in February 2012 to resolve outstanding protocols. Just as rivers such as the Niger, the Congo and the Nile have long been the continent’s trade arteries, so too have its inland lakes. For example, the further integration of the East Africa Community is being enhanced, with new ferries plying Lake Victoria between various ports in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Energy supply is one of Africa’s chief economic challenges. But hydropower could significantly help to fulfill the continent’s energy requirements. Most estimates suggest that Africa has Invest in africa 2012

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Senegal River Development Organization (OMVS) – a sustainable and stable framework for regional cooperation

Over 40 years, the Riparian states of the Senegal River (Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal) together have developed a multi-sector and integrated development program based on the control and rational management of water resources.

Four states, one vision of solidarity

The creation of the OMVS derives from the desire to apply a cross-border approach to harnessing resources, with the aim of initiating the necessary investment, stimulating growth in

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Riparian countries, improving living conditions of basin populations, and ensuring peace and stability across the sub-region. The OMVS has, since 2011, designed a Master Plan for the Development and Management of the Senegal River (SDAGE), which defines its overall vision for 2025 and sets its program of actions through seven regional sector plans: agro-sylvo-pastoral development; drinking water supply and sanitation; energy, mines and industry; transport and communications; management

of flood risk; and environmental and ecosystems management and protection.

A unique, innovative, cutting-edge institutional and legal framework – key legislative texts to prevent conflicts The OMVS Fundamental Framework confers international status on the Senegal River, including its tributaries, as well as infrastructure facilities that are in “joint and indivisible ownership of the Member States”. These unique and unrivalled provisions allow

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sponsored feature

OMVS: locations of current and future dams

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SIERRA LEONE

Source: SOE/OMVS

One of the dams across the Senegal River, located at Manantali in Mali

for cooperation in the financing of jointly owned structures, equal access to resources for member states and equitable allocation of costs and revenues. The Charter of Waters of the Senegal River, adopted in May 2002 by the OMVS Conference of Heads of State, defines consensual rules for water allocation and for environmental protection. It sets the framework and modalities of water users’ participation in the water management decision-making process. Since 2005, the International Code of Navigation and Transportation has complemented this framework.

Specific and notable results

• The regional infrastructure program has enabled the development and operation of the Diama and Manantali dams, which store 11 billion cu m of water, with a production

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of 800 GW/h hydroelectric power, and an interconnected network of 1,500km of fiber-optic power-transmission lines. The hydro power plant of Félou is being completed and, in the short to medium term, four additional structures will allow for full regularization of the Senegal River flow and development of potential energy (1,680 GW/h) and agricultural resources in the basin. Designed as part of an Integrated Multi-Modal Transport System (SITRAM) combining road, rail, river and sea, navigation on the Senegal River is operated by the Navigation Management Company (SOGENAV). The main challenges include opening up the basin’s landlocked areas and scaling-up flows and exchanges through a sustainable navigation system, as well as ensuring low transportation costs; • Optimal water resource management using modern planning and monitoring tools such as water management software, which provides a dashboard on needs versus resources (SDAGE); • An active policy for preserving the environment, which has resulted in the

establishment of an Observatory for the Environment and the implementation of the Project for Cross-Border Water and Environment Management; • Improving living conditions in the basin, through a massive investment in local development and health: $130 million in five years, mobilized under the Program for Integrated Environment Management and Development of Multipurpose Water Uses (PGIRE).

Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du fleuve Sénégal BP 3152 DAKAR Tel: +221 33 859 8182 Fax: +221 33 864 01 63 Email: [email protected]

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SECTOR-BY-SECTOR OPPORTUNITIES: WATER

developed just five to seven percent of its hydro potential, so the opportunities are huge and NEPAD is keen to exploit them. There is nothing new in hydroelectric generation for Africa. Early hydroelectric developments included the Aswan dam in Egypt, Cahora Bassa in Mozambique and the Kariba between Zambia and Zimbabwe. But today Africa’s headline project is the Grand Inga, or Inga III, on the Congo River in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In fact, there has been a 350MW hydroelectric dam at Inga since 1972 – Inga I. A decade later, Inga II was constructed, adding a further 1,400MW of generation capacity. The latest expansion plans, however, have the potential to generate as much as 40,000MW of power – equivalent to sub-Saharan Africa’s entire generation capacity excluding South Africa, and almost the equivalent of South Africa’s current installed base. The planned expansion even dwarfs China’s 18,200MW Three Gorges hydroelectric installation, which is currently the world’s largest hydropower project. However, doubts remain as to its economic viability. With an $80 billion-plus price tag, not including the grid transmission lines that would need to be built, raising the required capital in the current economic climate is a daunting task. Nevertheless, support from the AU, the AfDB and the World Energy Council continues. In November 2011, DRC president Joseph Kabila and his South African counterpart, Jacob Zuma, witnessed the

Expansion of the Inga dam, DRC

energy ministers of the two countries signing a new Grand Inga memorandum of understanding. The AU-NEPAD’s Africa Action Plan also focuses heavily on water. Three of the seven priority energy projects involve hydroelectricity: the Kariba-North and Itezhi Tezhi expansion project in Zambia; the Sambangalou (Senegal) and Kaleta (Guinea) development; and Grand Inga. In addition, new capacity in Ethiopia – including the Grand Millennium and Gibe III dams – is coming onstream. China is helping to build a 540MW, $1.4 billion hydropower plant in Southern Sudan, as well as a 400MW, $790 million project in Ghana. Inn Uganda, the long-awaited Bujagali hydroplant at Jinja, on the Nile, is making progress.

Small-scale hydro

All these projects are evidence of Africa’s continuing interest in hydro energy schemes. Furthermore, ‘pico-hydro’ turbines, powered by small, fast-moving rivers and streams, can also feed mini-grids to serve communities that it would be uneconomical to connect to national grids. Much of Africa has suffered from low levels of investment in agricultural irrigation. Across the continent, just five percent of farmland is irrigated. Even in South Africa, which has arguably the continent’s best-developed agricultural industry, only 10 percent of arable land is irrigated. The statistics are particularly worrying when compared with the rest of the world, where agriculture consumes 70 percent of the total water drawn from the available rivers and aquifers. 40,000MW Many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, for example, rely on rainwater storage and small-scale, low-technology irrigation systems – such as buried porous ceramic pots, drip irrigation

1,400MW Congo River

350MW

18,200MW

China’s Three Gorges hydroelectric installation, currently the world’s largest hydropower project

Inga dam

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SECTOR-BY-SECTOR OPPORTUNITIES: WATER

The Cahora Bassa dam, Mozambique, is one of Africa’s early hydroelectric developments

and sunken streambed structures. Yet, over time, these methods may become increasingly inadequate. According to The Future of Food and Farming, a report by the UK Government Office for Science, demand for water for agriculture could increase by more than 30 percent between 2000 and 2030, because of climate change, demographic change and social change. Africa’s irrigation requirements will have to be addressed if it is to cope with these increased levels of anticipated ‘water stress’. Anne Woodfine of TerrAfrica, which works with NEPAD’s Environment Initiative, says that the impact of climate change could pose insuperable challenges for sub-Saharan communities unless vital steps are taken now. “A transition toward more precision irrigated agriculture in water-stressed areas needs to be planned for, as reliable water supplies are a vital prerequisite to sustainable livelihoods,” she says. NEPAD hopes to address this problem in the coming years. Its Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme was established by the AU in 2003 and designates sustainable land and water management as one of four key focus areas. According to 2010 UN World Health Organization data, almost one billion people lack access to safe drinking water, many of those living in sub-Saharan Africa. Waterborne diseases are a severe problem, as they cause ailments ranging from parasitic worms to typhoid, cholera and diarrhea. The latter disease particularly affects the young. One in five child deaths – about 1.5 million each year – is due to diarrhea.

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Sudan’s Merowe Dam is designed to supply both power and irrigation for agriculture

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly declared access to clean water and sanitation a human right. But last year’s Africa Progress Panel report stated: “Implementing this right will be a particular challenge in Africa, where more than 40 percent of people live in water-deprived areas. The amount of water available for each person in Africa is declining even further as groundwater levels fall and precipitation patterns change.” The Africa Progress Panel counts both the AU and NEPAD as partner organizations, and is chaired by Kofi Annan, the former UN secretary general. Annan has commented that: “We shall not finally defeat HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria, or any other infectious disease that plagues the developing world, until we have also won the battle for safe drinking water, sanitation and basic healthcare.” NEPAD, through PIDA, has developed a water program to improve the management of water resources and meet the basic water needs of the continent’s population. The pan-African body is particularly effective in managing transboundary water resource negotiations, thereby encouraging national and regional cooperation and development. Managing Africa’s water needs and harnessing the power of hydroelectricity create formidable challenges for the continent. But initiatives are under way and progress is being made. The next few years could see considerable changes for the better. ■ Stephen Williams is the editor of New African Markets INVEST IN AFRICA 2012

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