Water blog posts

The draft outcome document from the Third International Conference on Financing for Development in Addis Ababa rightly mentions that efforts to end hunger and malnutrition need to be scaled up and that ecosystems need to be protected for the benefit of all. Irrigation, however, is not mentioned at all.

While Ethiopia hosts a global discussion on aid finance this week, a long-running dispute with its neighbours over how to share the Nile could be reaching a peaceful conclusion.

The Nairobi-Tana Water Fund comes at a time when water is more expensive than fuel for the majority in Nairobi; when more valuable topsoil is washed away in Noachian proportions; and when available science predicts radical shifts in climate. There is little scope left for debate and conjecture.

Situated in the far east of Sudan, the Gash Die is where the ‘wild’ Gash River comes to a stop in a desert territory – a so-called inland Delta. Since the 1970's, the fortunes of Gash Die have been on a steep decline.

Agricultural intensification is commonly identified as one way to both address growing food security concerns and improve the income of smallholder farmers. However on a recent trip I took to Northern Ghana, I noticed that agricultural intensification could lead to adverse effects, affecting men and women in ways we perhaps haven’t yet considered.

A major report on water for food security and nutrition, launched on Friday by the high-level panel of experts on food security and nutrition, is the first comprehensive effort to bring together access to water, food security and nutrition. This report goes far beyond the usual focus on water for agriculture.

What are we to make of the proliferation of water funds around the world? Now there’s a question. Would they still be growing in number if they weren’t delivering tangible impacts? Many interventions lack fundamental scientific principles to support them, so the answer in some cases may well be yes. Which is why it is vital that they get the science right.

When experts in large-scale irrigation systems hear the phrase ‘ecosystem services based approach’, their responses represent an array of contrasting perspectives on what is - or should be - an environmental service perspective and how it can be used. Two researchers react to ‘ecosystem services based approach’.

What are we to make of the proliferation of water funds round the world dedicated to maintaining the watersheds that keep rivers flowing, aquifers charged and taps full? Should we embrace the engagement of some of the world’s most famous water guzzlers?

When a savings and credit trainer had explained to a farmer that if he saved $1 per month for the last 30 years he would have more than $360, the farmer was impressed about the amount of savings he lost and raised a surprising question: where were you.

The Tana-Nairobi Water Fund is a public-private scheme uniting big business, utilities, conservation groups, government, researchers and farmers. It aims to increase farm productivity upstream, while improving water supply and cutting costs of hydropower and clean water for users downstream, and is designed to generate US$21.5 million in long-term benefits to Kenyan citizens, including farmers and businesses.

A recent study indicates that the total area under irrigation from groundwater resources in Africa can safely be expanded 20 times or more beyond current levels, but not everywhere. Farmers have already tapped into Africa’s groundwater, but mostly in the northern and southern regions. There is potential to sustainably increase the use of groundwater elsewhere in Africa, and in particular for small-scale farming.