The 'Next Oil' - Hydropolitics in Africa

Concluding Post - 'Water the Next Oil?' We commenced this blog by questioning Serageldins claim ‘is water the next oil?’ and have now explored the biopolitical, geopolitical, international and local dimensions of both surface and groundwater resources. We know oil, the fuel of modern consumptive societies, has fuelled major conflicts globally. The concept of the ‘resource curse’ helps to explain oil’s fuelling of conflict – but do nations war over water? As discussed in the first blog post, water is both a geopolitical and biopolitical issue on the African continent. The fundamentality of the resource to the sustenance and development of societies and it’s increasing scarcity due to climatic change, population growth, expanding agricultural demands etc. present’s the opportunity of conflict. Though water, the sustenance of life, instead presents opportunity for cooperation. As I have illustrated within my blog posts, water at all scales (from local to international) and water...

Waiting at the Tap - Local Hydropolitics Water is highly political especially as resources become more stressed. In the previous blogs we have explored the international dimensions of hydropolitics, hydropolitics are multi-scalar though and also extend to a local scale. Cities are becoming increasingly unequal and disparities between urban and rural dwellers continue to increase. The inequalities of water resources and the infrastructures which provide this vital source of life have become increasingly politicized. Mother and Daughter fill jerry cans at a pump, Goma in The Democratic Republic of Congo - Source  The ‘Poolitical’ Water not only sustains us through sustenance with water and food, it also sustains us and our societies through sanitation and clearance of waste. Though as urban centres continue to swell the inequalities around the sanitation of urban life have become increasingly more apparent. Mcfarlane and Silver ( 2016 ) use the term ‘Poolit...

Squeezing Africa Dry - Water Grabbing In the preceding blogs we explored the forms of cooperation and conflict which arise from both surface water and groundwater resources. Within this blog post we'll explore the conflicts which arise from the exploitation of water resources by those actors that exist externally of the continent of Africa itself. The concept of water grabbing refers to 'situations where powerful actors take control of valuable water resources for their own benefit' ( Franco et al 2014 ) often resulting in inequitable distribution of these water resources. Water is life, from sustaining the ecosystems in which we rely to the agriculture which feeds us all. Agriculture is in fact the major driver of water grabbing with large scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) often resulting from the quest for water resources to sustain agricultural production on the acquired land ( Dell'Angelo et al 2018 ). Water grabbing therefore exists as a kin term to land grabbing. ...