The weight of water injustice

As my blog draws to a close, I want to finish on a heated issue: the instability of the Sahel region. Home to Lake Chad - a transboundary freshwater source - the area has become a locus for intersecting challenges of climate change. Temperatures in the Sahel are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average, depleting natural resources at a rate that outstrips demand. Since the 1960s, Lake Chad has shrunk by 90% - a figure that equates to approximately 24,500km² ( Figure 1) . Yet the livelihoods of 30 million people within Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon still depend upon it. For an area that is already characterised by poor governance, a persistent economic crisis and a bourgeoning terrorist organisati on ( Boko Haram ), this does not bode well. In fact, it only exacerbates existing crises , creating conflicts that have a gendered impact. This brings me to the topic of my final blog on water and gender: climate-related challenges for indigenous women in the Sahel.  Figure 1...

Today marks 'International Disability Day', bringing the rights and needs of disabled persons to the forefront of society. In an effort to contribute, this week's blog is dedicated to the relationship between disabled people and water within Africa.  In March 2010,  ‘Water, Sanitation and Disability in Rural West Africa’  was published. This report  looks into the lives of 260 disabled people living in rural Mali, highlighting the significant barriers that are faced when collecting and using water. However, over 11 years have passed since the publication and disabled persons remain a largely excluded group from both society and policies. Confined to their homes as a result of stigmatisation and poor resources, disabled people have been termed the  “hidden poor” . This post aims to make visible the “invisible”.   Social Challenges Across rural West Africa, disabled people are the most isolated and vulnerable members of communities. Born out of a  fear t...