The 'Next Oil' - Hydropolitics in Africa

Plumbing the Sahara - The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) The Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (NSAS) is the apex African aquifer, it is the world's largest aquifer system covering approximately 2.2 million Km 2 ( Alker 2008 ). The extensive aquifer extends quietly beneath the surface of North East Africa stretching from the Tibesti mountains in the central Sahara to the Red Sea in the East, from the Lake Chad Basin in the south to Mediterranean sea in the north. This colossal aquifer lay silently below the Sahara for millennia with the main bulk of the water dating back to between 100,000 - 1 million years ago whilst the deepest water resources date back to as far as 2 million years ago ( Zekster and Everett 2004:221-222 ). The system underlies 4 large nations which harbour a population of over 136 million ( IAEA 2011 ) the aforementioned nations are; Libya, Egypt, Sudan and Chad. The system was discovered in 1953 by chance as Libya searched for 'black gold' within

Africa's Aquifers Groundwater, though not as clearly evident as surface water, still exists as a major source of water and constitutes the invisible half of the world's blue water resources. Groundwater exists as an indispensable freshwater resource, of the 2.5% of water on earth that exists as fresh water, 29.9% of that fresh water exists as groundwater ( Shiklomanov 1999:4 ). Groundwater therefore dwarfs the total amount of fresh surface water which constitutes a mere 0.26% of fresh water resources on Earth. The parched continent of Africa does in fact contain relatively large groundwater resources. Total groundwater storage in Africa is estimated to be 0.66 million km 3, this estimated volume is more than 100 times the estimates of annual renewable freshwater resources on the African continent ( Macdonald et al 2012 ). Though Africa does have vast groundwater resources, these are unevenly distributed (see figure 1a and 1b) with the largest groundwater volumes found in larg

Damned if I do, Damned If I don't In the last blog we explored the hydropolitics which arise in relation to the sharing of a surface water resource - the River Nile. Within that blog we looked at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam which is an evolving case study. That case links quite nicely to the content of this blog post, in this blog post we will explore the hydropolitics that evolve around the constructions of dam's. The above title is a phrase meaning any action (or inaction) will result in some sort of negative outcome - I believe this extremely relevant to the case of dams. Dams exist as influential constructions used to tame wild rivers, generate hydroelectric power and produce vast reservoirs to supply water for irrigation. Dams have had lasting impacts ( Guardian 2015 ) not only on the surface of our planet but also on whole societies. From the infamous Hoover dam, which made the arid southwest United States productive contributing to the United States emergence f