Widespread poverty amidst abundant resources in Africa

Despite its abundant resources and oil wealth, Africa is still having widespread poverty. People have continued to face misery and majority wallow in poverty all through out their lives on earth.Prof. Bikoro Munyanganizi, Rwanda’s State Minister in-charge of Water and Mines, says that East African states are very rich in all. With an abundance of resources, constant rainfall and favourable soils and oil, Africans are indeed well-off people.“We have rich minerals here, but how many people make better use of them?” Munyanganizi wondered. He said: “We are poor because we have failed to use our abundant resources productively.”The minister made a resounding pitch for leaders of Kagera River Basin members States; Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda, who gathered at La Palisse Hotel in Nyandungu on November 5, to devise ways of maximizing great benefits from Kagera River.The four countries share the Kagera Basin and have all adopted various strategies and action plans that address sustainable management of natural resources, bio-diversity conservation, agriculture, forests, desertification, and climate change mitigation.“It’s very unfortunate that we keep talking about poverty yet our region is rich with enough resources. Let us devise ways of exploiting and using Kagera River Basin profitably,” Munyanganizi said.He lamented that though leaders meet to look for ways of reducing the dilemma of African people, actual activities on the ground aimed at changing their lives evade them.Poverty is especially severe in rural areas, where social-economic development programmes and infrastructure are limited or non-existent. A great majority who live in rural areas are poor and depend on agriculture.The highest percentage of the continent’s food is produced by small-scale farmers cultivating tiny plots of land and depending on rainfall rather than irrigation systems.Adeti Ndayiseye, the Nile Basin Initiative executive director based in Entebbe – Uganda, agrees with Munyanganizi, “For Africans to live decent lives, society should rise up and guard the continent’s resources and put them to better use.“We must take full advantage of the water resources and invest in income-generating projects to alleviate poverty,” Ndayiseye appealed to the members during a two-day workshop, which focused on mapping ways of using Kagera water resources profitably.The Kagera Basin is spread over Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda with a total area of 59,800 sq. km. It is the largest of the 23 rivers that flow into Lake Victoria and it carries 34 percent of the annual river inflow to the lake.Within the Kagera basin, Rwanda shares 75 percent.Ndayiseye says the basin is characterized by low productive subsistence agriculture and endemic poverty. Besides, there is continued land degradation and loss of soil fertility caused by population pressure and primitive farming methods; if changed, these could have positive bearing on the people living within the basin.“It’s very absurd to experience misery amidst plentiful resources,” Ndayiseye stressed.Nabide Isah Kiti, is the project manager for Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program’s (NELSAP), a subsidiary organ of Nile Basin Initiative.The Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) was established as an inter–governmental organization to address the region’s brewing water conflict, reduce poverty and promote economic integration.River Nile, Africa’s longest river, runs through 10 countries. The Nile Basin covers an area of around three million square kilometers, or nearly 10 percent of the landmass of the African continent, and is home to 160 million people.Ndayiseye says the Kagera river basin is part of the Nile Basin and as such receives substantial support through the Nile Basin Initiative. NELSAP in addition to Kagera countries includes Congo D.R, and Kenya, as well as downstream Egypt and Sudan. There is ill-feeling between member states that share the Nile; water resources are not put into better use.Nelsap’s overall objective of the Kagera project is to establish a sustainable framework for the joint management of the shared water resources of the Kagera River Basin.“We are developing an investment strategy and conducting pre-feasibility studies, building capacity at all levels for sustainable management and development of Kagera River,” Kiti said.Its main aim as defined by Nile Equatorial Lakes Council of Ministers is to realize development benefits such as economic prosperity, poverty reduction, peace, economic integration and environment sustainability.Kiti, however, points out that financial limitations and lack of trained personnel hinder their rigorous efforts to earmark small scale projects.The Kagera integrated water resource management and development project is one of the three river basin projects implemented under the Nelsap.The others include: Mara River basin Project and the Sio-Malaba-Malakisi trans-boundary integrated water resources management and development projects.Kiti said other projects under Nelsap are aimed at controlling soil erosion which can result into an increased nutrient load in the river and also in the Lake Victoria, leading to problems of water hyacinth and fish scarcity.Land degradation is recognized by all stakeholders as a major threat to the natural resource-base and to livelihoods.The Ratification of the Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in the late 1990s by the four countries and the subsequent development of National Action Programmes (NAPs) for its implementation, have led to raised awareness at national and local levels in terms of media advocacy. However, a lot is still needed.For Kagera member states to succeed in exploiting their resources fully, Kati observes that governments should advance financial assistance to states already in the business.“Member states should financially facilitate the involvement of civil society in the planning and development processes of the Nile Basin as envisaged by the Nile Basin Initiative-NBI,” Kati appealed.“The government of Rwanda is ready to facilitate the projects under the Nile basin initiative for the benefit all people in the region,” Bikoro explained.Boniface Mutsindashaka, is the eastern province governor who says it disturbs to see Africans die of poverty yet they are rich. “We have lakes and rivers. Water just ends in the hands of other people who use it for irrigation,” Mutsindashaka continues to say.“It’s very shameful to have water here in abundance, instead of using it for development, we sit back and watch as it causes soil erosion,” Mutsindashaka said.This is the situation that runs through poor Africa amidst abundant resources. If only the natural resources we are endowed with were put to proper use, poverty would be history on the African continent.Ends