Publication: The Future of Water in African Cities : Why Waste Water?
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Date
2013
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Published
2013
Abstract
The overall goal of this book is to change the way urban policy makers think about urban water management, planning, and project design in Africa. African cities are growing quickly, and their current water management systems cannot keep up with growing demand. It will take a concerted effort on the part of decision makers across sectors and institutions to find a way to provide sustainable water services to African city dwellers. This book argues that these complex challenges require innovative solutions and a management system that can work across institutional, sectoral, and geographic boundaries. A survey conducted for this analysis shows that African city leaders and utility operators are looking for ways to include a broader range of issues, such as water resources management, flood and drought preparation, rainwater harvesting, and solid waste management, than previously addressed in their water management plans. This book argues that integrated urban water management (IUWM) will help policy makers in African cities consider a wider range of solutions, understand water's interaction with other sectors, and secure resilience under a range of future conditions.
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“Jacobsen, Michael; Webster, Michael; Vairavamoorthy, Kalanithy. Jacobsen, Michael; Webster, Michael; Vairavamoorthy, Kalanithy, editors. 2013. The Future of Water in African Cities : Why Waste Water?. Directions in development;environment and
sustainable development. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11964 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication The Future of Water in African Cities : Why Waste Water? Integrated Urban Water Management, Background Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-12)The primary objective of this report is to provide a coherent and comprehensive review on integrated urban water management (IUWM) approach to assist public authorities to identify and address the future challenges of urban water supply, sanitation and flood management in African cities. This report presents the existing and future challenges in Africa, the possible options for innovative technologies and approaches for their breakthrough and a way forward to achieve the objectives of IUWM. It highlights technical and institutional constraints of the IUWM in Africa. It presents the global and African best practices and trends in IUWM which are linked to urban development and which have very good lessons learnt that can be shared within and among the cities in Africa. The report consists of four chapters. Chapter two reviews the existing condition, future challenges and opportunities in Urban Water Sector (UWS) in Africa. The review covers the current situation of urban water systems and their management approaches; the major future change pressures (climate change, population growth and urbanization, deterioration of infrastructure systems) and their impacts on UWS; and opportunities for implementing the IUWM approach in Africa. Chapter three introduces the key concepts and conceptual framework of IUWM. The framework has been supplemented by appropriate technologies and innovative approaches of IUWM that will be suitable for cities in Africa. This chapter also presents the global experiences and best practices of IUWM that can be shared within the Africa cities. Chapter four presents case studies to demonstrate how the IUWM framework can be operationalized and to select the appropriate technologies and approaches as discussed in chapter 3 based on the different typologies of the cities and development stages in Africa. The typologies include an emerging town in Uganda (Masindi), a city with partially developed infrastructure in Ghana (Accra) and fully developed city in South Africa (Cape Town). Based on the cases, a few recommendations (road map) for the implementation of IUWM approach for other cities in Africa have been presented in chapter four.Publication The Future of Water in African Cities : Why Waste Water? Diagnostic of Urban Water Management in 31 Cities in Africa, Companion Volume(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-01)By 2030, Africa's urban population will double, and the difficulties African cities currently face in providing sustainable water services will be exacerbated. 'The future of water in African cities: why waste water?' argues that the traditional approach of one source, one system, and one discharge cannot close the water gap. A more integrated, sustainable, and flexible approach, which takes into account new concepts such as water fit to a purpose, is needed in African cities. The book provides examples of cities in Africa and beyond that have already implemented Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) approaches both in terms of technical and institutional solutions. Case studies explore the ways in which IUWM can help meet future water demand in African cities. Recent work carried out by Bahri (2012) on IUWM for the Global Water Partnership has also emphasized the necessity to examine the challenges posed by urban sprawl for urban planners and to recognize the need for coordinate, response, and sustainable resource management across sectors, sources, services and scales. The World Bank has recognized a need for an integrated approach to urban water management. As part hereof the issue has come to the forefront: What is the specific character of the water challenge in African cities and how can we compare the severity of the challenge, the need for integrated approach and the local capacity to respond to these challenges? The study presented in this companion volume is an initial attempt to answer this question.Publication The Future of Water in African Cities : Why Waste Water? Urban Access to Water Supply and Sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Background Report(Washington, DC, 2012-12)The main purpose of this paper is to explain the patterns of access to water supply and sanitation facilities in urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa since the late 90's, and its relation with the performance of service providers in the case of improved water supply. It also seeks to explore the institutional context of the water supply and sanitation sectors. 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Attention is increasingly being paid to adaptation strategies at the regional and basin level; however, the current paucity of information regarding the potential risk to hydrological systems at this scale presents a substantial challenge for effective water resources planning and investment. This study is intended to help bridge the gap between high-level climate change predictions and the needs of decision-makers, including World Bank Task Team Leaders, government agencies, investors, and national economic development planners, whose programs and investments will be affected by basin- and regional-level impacts of climate change on water resources and related infrastructures. This study evaluates the effects of climate change on six hydrological indicators across 8,413 basins in World Bank client countries. These indicators, mean annual runoff (MAR), basin yield, annual high flow, annual low flow, groundwater (base-flow), and reference crop water deficit, were chosen based on their relevance to the wide range of water resource development projects planned for the future. To generate a robust, high-resolution understanding of possible risk, this analysis examines relative changes in all variables from the historical baseline (1961 to 1999) to the 2030s and 2050s for the full range of 56 General Circulation Model (GCM) Special Report on Emissions Scenario (SRES) combinations evaluated in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4).Publication Grow in Concert with Nature : Sustaining East Asia's Water Resources through Green Water Defense(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012)As countries develop, the demand for water increases while water supply becomes less certain and is often not enough to meet demand. In general, pressures from both environment and human activities can increase the likelihood of water scarcity. Such pressures include increased socio-economic development and population growth, change in people's diets, competition for available water among different user sectors and growing climate variability. Climate change is likely to exacerbate the existing demand and supply stresses, particularly when more frequent and extreme droughts and floods, as well as rising sea level are becoming more evident. In temperate, sub-temperate regions, less rainfall and longer dry seasons are expected. In tropical areas, rainfall is predicted to be similar or greater in terms of annual average volumes, more intense and severe storms and seasonal droughts (IPCC, 2007). These pressures will test the effectiveness of water resource management systems in providing a consistent and secure water supply for all users, with minimum externalities. This study will assess advances in management practices, institutional and technological innovations for managing water scarcity sustainably under a changing climate. This study of 'sustaining East Asia's water resources through Green Water Defense (GWD) is a sub-study of the 'towards GWD in East Asia' study and is complemented by another sub-study 'green water defense for flood risk management in East Asia' that focuses on flood management in delta regions.
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