Water Security in North African Sub-Sahara and California
Introduction
Water security refers to the capacity that a population has to ensure that it continues to have a reach to portable to water. Improving the security of a nation’s drinking water is important as it ensures clean and safe water. It is important to plan for and practice natural disasters to establish new security technologies to enable to monitor contaminants and avoid security breaches. The United Nations World Water Development has outlined various challenges facing the water security in developed and developing countries. It is, therefore, of much significance to consider challenges in both divisions and their relation. This paper is entirely to compare and contrast different water management challenges facing developed and developing countries. In this case, we will take a community from the sub Saharan Africa (North Africa) and another from the United States (California). The case study will thus elaborate factors on the aspect of domestic water.
Challenges facing water security
There are various challenges that face water security in California and the North Africa. The first is Climate change that has been a major influence on drinking water. Adverse climate change has posed challenges to wastewater and storm water utilities in meeting the demands of public health and environmental change. In addition, extreme weather events that undertook in various regions of the North Africa have greatly impacted to low water security. One of these significant factors is the sea level rise. This is caused by the different amount of water capacity that the sea holds at different seasons of the year. The shifting precipitation in California has also greatly influenced the precipitation in that region (Bernal & Fernandez, 2003, p. 56). This has brought the insufficient aspect of water in that part of the country.
Temperature variance is the second challenge that has faced water security in the North African community. The region is prone to high temperatures that have resulted to evaporation from the water resources. The vegetation in the region has been also affected by these high temperatures. Thus, it is highly structured to cub with the low water supportive area. In the same case, California’s Bay-Delta has also been greatly influenced by increasing temperatures caused by climate change. As a result, the quality of native species has been reduced and intensified the challenge of sustaining people needs.(Vorosmarty& McIntyre, 2010, p. 77).
The third challenge that has faced water security between these two regions is water contamination. Contamination of clean water for home use is evident in both regions of Sub-Saharan Africa and California. Contamination of clean water refers to the addition of non-health additives into the clean water that is to be consumed. The contaminants can be from the action of man`s activities or from the natural aspect of the environment. However, man as a source of contamination to the water has been the major contribution in these regions. The natural aspect of water contamination is experienced like from various floods that hit the regions. Floods are common in the North Africa region of the Sub-Sahara. These floods carry different types of materials from the slopes of the landscape. These materials are then carried to the water resources relied by people for their use. Some of the harmful materials carried to water bodies is agricultural fertilizers that greatly contaminates water. At the slopes also, the runoff water carries sewages that are released by man. This is greatly evidenced in most of the North African countries (Bernal & Fernandez, 2003, p. 81).
In California, the situation is not different. Contamination of water is still evident though the government has set various guides and policies to curb it. Fresno, California has indicated nitrate contamination on the drinking water. According to the University of California’s Centre for Watershed Sciences report, the nitrates that are chemical fertilizers and livestock manure are the major sources of nitrate contamination regarding underground water (Harter & Jay, 2012) For instance, Maywood, California in Los Angeles County recently has been one of the many cities in US suffering from lack of access to clean water. This rises from the high contaminants in the water supplies leading to health dangers. The major body that is governing water quality in California is the federal Clean Water Act that was imposed in 1977. Groundwater protection was built in the Safe Drinking Water Act. The Environmental Protection Agency Act is concerned with setting the standards for water quality. It also oversees the states, implements the standards of water suppliers and looks into the localities.
Despite the implementation of these laws, many chemicals are still enclosed in drinking water. This has been caused by people’s limited knowledge on health risks of these contaminants. Manganese is highly dominant in the water, and that causes various illnesses to the people living in this state. Thomas Harter, UCD Davis (a ground water hydrologist) says that this could pose a great danger in the future (Harter, 2009). The nitrates in the water have caused the blue baby syndrome and reproductive disorders. Cancer is also a common disease from this water. Treatment of these diseases has led to many deaths in this region calling for the government to spend many resources in medication. The government has also estimated a cost over $20 million per year that is to address current nitrate concentration in water, in the region. They have also pulled down the economy of the region since most people can work in such environment (Bernal & Fernandez, 2003, p. 101). The culture of the people in the region has also been not conserved due to pollution limits.
Discussion
Despite the above mentioned challenges, it should be noted that the major effects on water security in the regions is the use of chemicals and other contaminants. Considerably, whether it is, food, nutrition, poverty reduction, human health, economic growth or energy production-water are the nexus. The difference between the use and conservation of water creates a major difference between the developed and developing countries. Most North African nations are struggling to establish basic water services like cleaning the resource and sanitation. They emerge as regions of highest adjusted water security threat. Low water infrastructure leads to direct economic impacts. Drought parts like in Ethiopia and its climate that has hydrological variability take almost 30% toll on the gross domestic product (Vorosmarty& McIntyre, 2010, p. 134).
The average number of individuals under chronically high water scarcity most of them who are poor is about 2 million. It is also suggested that as the wealth of a nation increases its water security issues improve. This is true when compared with California region of the US and the Sub-Saharan nations that are living poverty. The Sub-Saharan nations are not able to control their water resources and also lack knowledge concerning water conservation. This is the factor that has led to these nations suffer from lack of water security in this region. Political aspect in California and other Northern parts of the US on water quality have led to improved water services in the state. This aspect has not been established in the Northern Sub-Saharan nations of Africa.
Contrasts between occurrence and man water security threat are significance especially when it comes to national health. Human water security incident actually is in the rise. This can be widely viewed in the Sub-Saharan nation. The outbreak of various water related diseases is on the rise. For instance, the child mortality is on the rise due to infected water consumption. The death rates last year were as high as 4.5% in the region a figure that is very vital. In developed countries like the US, technology has been a major boost towards quality water for home use. Water in the various regions like California is treated and scanned before it is supplied by various companies to homes for use. Thus, economy of the various nations also is a greater contribution towards water security. The water that is piped to various homes in California is thus safe for domestic consumption. This does not make this area free from water challenges since there are also less privileged members who obtain the resource from polluted rivers(Spring &Brauch, 2011).
In the Northern region of the Sub-Saharan Africa, is greatly affected from the water security. The global investment strategy for human water security has indicated that, the challenge of water security in the region has not only been brought by man's activities in the area but also by natural factors. The floods in the area have considerably filled the water sources with chemicals from various sources around the landscape. The quantity of the water is limited at various seasons of the year. This has led to various deaths in this region especially during the drought. Scarcity of the water also has led to the deaths of livestock and low yields from the farms increasing poverty. Research indicates that almost 3000 people lose their lives during the drought period due to low water access.
In most of the US including California and the Northern section of the state, water though not much adequate, it is of quality and quantity. Compared to the Sub-Saharan Africa these areas receive good water services from the suppliers. The African sub-Saharan though is affected by frequent floods and drought a factor that is not observed in the Northern parts of the US. Water study should be enhanced in this area in order to create awareness to the people in this area on the measurable steps to take to counter for water security. Industries that empty their wastes into rivers are to be advised. Aspects such as recycling wastes should be considered in order to maintain minimal water contamination. Population rise in most of these areas has caused competition for the resource especially in the North of the US. This will also pose a danger to water pollution since the high population will fight for the available amenities. Reliance on trans-boundary water supplies in the Northern Sub-Saharan Africa presents a considerable risk to these nations. This brings war and rivalry between the nations sharing the resource. However, some solutions are desalinization of salt water in the Sub-Saharan nations. It also counts for water conservation through the creation of policies that are to be undertaken by each citizen(Spring &Brauch, 2011, 78).
Conclusion
Water security is an issue that affects everybody in the environment and, therefore, should be concerned in moving towards achieving water security need. There is a need to embed this challenge into a national development plan. The governments in both the regions should bring together fragmented responsibilities and interests of various institutions regarding water such as a reduction of poverty. In addition, water security is a diverse factor that requires cooperation from between its users, and those sharing its source. Therefore, water is a central measure towards development, thus investing in water delivers instant benefits as well as long-term economic, social and environmental resilience.
References
Bernal C. & Fernandez J. (2003).Global Change: Impacts on Water and food Security. New
York, NY: Spring Publishers.
Spring O. &Brauch G. (2011). Coping with Global Environmental Change, Disasters and
Security: Threats, Challenges, Vulnerabilities and Risks. New York. Spring Publishers.
Vorosmarty, C. & McIntyre, P. (2010).Global threats to human water security and river
biodiversity Nature.New York, NY: Prentice Hall.
Harter, T. (2009) Agricultural Impacts on Groundwater Nitrate. Retrieved from
http://www.swhydro.arizona.edu/archive/V8_N4/feature2.pdf
Harter, T. and Jay, R. (2012) UC Davis Report for the SWRCB SBX2 1 Report to the Legislature. Retrieved from http://groundwaternitrate.ucdavis.edu/
