Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene September - October 2016 Vol. 11 No.4 | Page 9

NEWS in brief
Water shortage Africa’s biggest challenge, says
Mwai Kibaki

Global Highlights

Temperature in Kuwait hits 54 Celsius, sets

Africa’s annual per capita water availability is well below
that of other continents.

Dohuk, Iraq, Sharia camp (file). Photo: OCHA/Gwen McClure

Former President Mwai Kibaki, a Unesco special envoy for water in Africa,
addressing the sixth African Water Week conference in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania. PHOTO | PPS

Former President Mwai Kibaki has said water scarcity is
“perhaps the biggest challenge facing our continent today”,
in his first major assignment as the water envoy in Africa.
For a continent that is wealthy in natural resources, he said,
Africa’s annual per capita water availability is well below
that of other continents.
“Africa is host to 15 per cent of the world’s population.
However, it has only nine per cent of freshwater resources.
Moreover, Africa is the world’s second-driest continent
after Australia,” he said Monday.
Mr Kibaki was addressing more than 1,000 delegates from
Africa’s water ministries, development partners and water
experts attending the sixth Africa Water Ministers Summit
in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
He said the key to turning the tide of water availability on
the continent lay in reusing and recharging ground water.
“This summit is the right avenue to agree on the measures
each country should adopt to ensure security of already
available water. We have in mind, river, lake, rain and
groundwater,” he said.
He also hailed the forum, which he said shows how
African countries are determined to achieve the universal
access to water under the Sustainable Development Goals
(SGDs).
Mr Kibaki was appointed the new Unesco special envoy
for water in Africa in April.

sThe World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a
United Nations specialized agency, will set up a committee
to examine whether a 54 degrees Celsius temperature
recently recorded in Kuwait, has set the new highest
temperature for Asia, as well as for the entire Eastern
hemisphere.
The region saw unusually high temperatures with Mitrabah,
Kuwait, reporting a temperature of 54 degrees Celsius
(129.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on 21 July, and the city of Basra
in Iraq reporting 53.9 degrees Celcius (128 Fahrenheit) on
Friday 22 July. Southern Morocco also saw temperatures
of between 43 degrees and 47 degrees Celsius.
“The Kuwait investigation, as with all WMO official
investigations, will consist of meteorologists and
climatologists,” the agency said last July.
“They will examine the instrumentation used, the quality
of observations, the microclimate of the location, the
representativeness of the [weather monitoring] station to
its surroundings and to its own record,” it added.
Large parts of the Middle East and North Africa
have been affected by heatwaves since last week, with
temperatures exceeding the seasonal averages by a large
margin, and over a sustained period. The conditions have
prompted to issue health warnings.
The refugee population in the Middle East has been hard
hit by the spiking temperatures. Their fragile situation has
been further exacerbating by the high temperatures, said
WMO.
According to the World Weather and Climate Extremes
official archives, that WMO is responsible for, the hottest
temperature ever recorded on the planet was in Furnace
Creek, Death Valley, California at 56.7 Celsius on 10 July
1913.
“However, these records are subject to regular review,”
noted the agency.
Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene • September - October 2016

7