ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY
infrastructure raise further concerns as to
the security of water systems.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risk
Report (GRR) has listed water crises among
the top-five risks in terms of impact for eight
consecutive years. In the most recent version of
the report, it remains nested among a cluster of
other risks that are rated as having both a very
high likelihood and a very high impact.
These include extreme weather events,
natural disasters, the failure of climate
change adaptation and mitigation, man-made
environmental disasters, biodiversity loss and
ecosystem collapse, interstate conflict, and
large scale-involuntary migration.
These risks are increasingly interconnected.
Failure to mitigate climate change could lead
to more extreme weather events, ecosystem
collapse, and a greater likelihood of man-
made environmental disasters.
All of these can exacerbate food and water
insecurity, which in turn can lead to human
deprivation, and could make these and other
risks like migration and conflict more likely in
a negative feedback loop. Around two-thirds of
the world’s population, or four billion people,
currently live without sufficient access to fresh
water for at least one month of the year.
Further complicating the picture is the reality that
securing water for food and economic activity
will only become more difficult over time. As
economies develop, their water consumption
patterns shift and overall demand rises
dramatically to meet the needs of food production,
thirsty manufacturing and other industries, thermal
power plants, and households.
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Altering downstream flows can jeopardise
traditional economic activities that underpin
the viability of Delta fishing villages, destroying
livelihoods and exacerbating social tensions
such as intergenerational friction.
Combined with reductions in available farmland
associated with rising temperatures and
desertification, such environmental degradation
risks further fuelling mass migration to the
Malian capital Bamako and Europe.
The journey is not a safe one, with
criminalised trafficking routes that pass
nearby between the West African coast and
the Sahara. The history of radicalisation in
the region by extremist groups that have
established themselves in northern Mali
further illustrates the vulnerabilities facing the
displaced and disenfranchised.
People whose access to water is limited, risk
becoming increasingly marginalised, and a
target for recruitment by radical groups. Water
is critical to the region’s security.
The Inner Niger Delta illustrates the critical role
that water insecurity can play in exacerbating
other risks, and the necessity of holistic policy
approaches. Unfortunately, water insecurity is
not yet taken seriously enough by all actors,
despite its central role in our economies and in
human lives and livelihoods.
In most scenarios, the true security threat
caused by water insecurity is not a ‘water
war’, but rather in its secondary impact on
associated human security, which can then
exacerbate local, regional, and international
security threats.
However, water supplies are often damaged
by poor management, pollution, and over-
consumption, in addition to supply-side
reductions due to climate change impacts and
the ecosystem degradation mentioned above. It can impede or reverse economic
development, and prevent countries from
playing their part in achieving the Sustainable
Development Goals. It can also affect the
private sector, for instance by affecting critical
parts of complex supply chains.
Many of these drivers of insecurity can be seen
in the Inner Niger Delta area of Mali, a marshy-
wetlands along a stretch of the Niger River.
Disruptions to the Delta’s waters, for instance
through the construction of two upstream
dams, risk destroying fragile ecosystems and
further destabilising the entire region. Robust solutions to the water security
challenge are critical for everybody from public
policymakers and businesses to the wider
public and the international community. A new
generation of public-private partnerships can
be part of the solution to such complex and
interrelated risks, responding with urgency
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
May 2019 Volume 25 I Number 3