Final Thoughts

Image Source: Japantimes.co.jp, 2018

We are approaching the end of the term and that sadly means my blog's journey has finally come to an end. Throughout the whole process of doing my research, I have learnt many new things about the complex, yet close relationship that is shared between changes in the environment and water in the development of Africa. It really showed me how little I knew about the water crisis situation in the second-largest continent on Earth.

Starting out, I tried narrowing the definition of "environmental change" down to referring only to climate change within the context of my blog, due to the vagueness of the term. However, along my research journey, I discovered that there are so many subjects to talk about and ponder upon within the climate change basket. Despite having set the tone of my blog to focus on the impact of climate change on water resources in Africa, I also decided to branch out into considering less conventional factors of environmental change, such as impacts from foreign MNC operations (my post on Shell in Nigeria). Likewise, I also went into detail about integrated water management strategies on the transboundary and local (urban) scale, as I felt that these long-term strategies play an important role in ensuring water sustainability and development. Lastly, I expanded the scope of environmental-related management strategies in Africa, and talked about international level climate change deals (such as the Paris Agreement deal initialised in 2015) in an African context.

Some key points I took away from this coursework include:

1. While climate change has been touted in recent years as being a prominent influence on the environment in Africa, it is not the sole cause of the water crisis that is plaguing the continent. Rather, climate change is worsening both the water crisis and its outcomes. Many scholars have emphasised that Africa is extremely vulnerable to the impacts arising from global warming, despite being the least contributor to its acceleration. This can be seen in weather patterns becoming more erratic, resulting in prolonged droughts and unpredictable rainfall that majority of the population are severely unprepared for. Consequently, this affects other sectors that are highly dependent on water, such as energy generation, sanitation, and food and agriculture. It could also have spillover effects onto industries that one would not commonly think is associated with water, like tourism (see Cape Town post, where I discussed about the Day Zero crisis negatively impacting the tourism industry).

2. Environmental change as a whole is a phenomenon that occurs naturally, but can be (heavily) altered through anthropogenic interferences. These actions can vary in scale, from small scale traditional irrigation methods adopted by rural farmer, to construction of large scale hydroelectric dams by state authorities. The motivation behind these interferences also differs from an individual's or MNC's (short-term) interests to serving the public's (long-term) interests. Regardless, it is vital to include human actions into the equation when considering how environmental changes transforms water supplies and distribution in Africa.

3. There is no one perfect strategy that can be implemented to completely eradicate Africa's water crisis.  Every proposed idea to mitigate or adapt to the unreliable and unclean water resources have their pros and cons. While integrated water resource management strategies (IWRM and IUWM), as well as climate change agreements (i.e. Paris Agreement, Ecosystem-Based Adaptation) appear to be the way forward due to their all-rounding approach, they too have their shortfalls that must be addressed if we want the outcome to be largely beneficial. Thus, there is an element of stakeholders having to remain dynamic to accommodate to changing perspectives, needs and wants of those involved in these plans.

Overall, my eyes were definitely opened towards how complex this topic on development in Africa can get. With so many different subtopics to choose from, and the timeline in which I was given to complete my coursework, it challenged me to pick what I thought was crucial for discussion to put in my blog. I hope my blog has been comprehensive and that following its updates has sparked a newfound curiosity in how environmental change is impacted by and impacts water resources in the continent, and how it plays a key role in its road to development!