For many of us who live in tropical Africa, the idea that a person can die due to lack of water seems farfetched. After all there is drinking water in the many swamps, streams and rivers all for free. We attach value to water when someone adds Chlorine, puts it a plastic bottle and sells it to us. I know people who cannot spend money buying bottled water. We think of water as an all abounding inexhaustible resource, that will always be there except when the Almighty in the Heavens decrees and it does not rain and then the crops wither, livestock die because there is no pasture to graze and then our finances dry up. The idea that water is a resource that must be properly managed and preserved does not make much sense. Many countries, have their resources deployed in finding or defending their water resources and indeed one of the sticking points in the Middle Eastern conflicts, are sources of water particularly the Golan Heights that were captured from Syria by Israel. A friend of mine who visited one of the Mediterranean countries, was shocked to find that in some places water cost more than wine. With the shrinking of water levels of Lake Chad, many countries in the region that shared its waters are jostling for what remains of it, and its continuously decreasing water may be a source of conflict in the future. The Egyptians have for millennia, relied on the fresh Nile water, for survival and are opposed to any revision of the colonial agreements signed before the countries that share the River Nile became independent. Many people, argue that the conflict in Darfur, has more to do with water resources than oil. In many cities most notably Madrid, water remains the biggest challenge and indeed, in all arid areas water has been and will remain a precious commodity. Other cities spend large amounts of resources recycling and purifying water, to make it suitable for domestic use. Many Rwandans admire residents of countries that export oil, because of the dollars that accrue from oil exports, but no one mentions the lost revenue from the trillions of liters of water that flow to the Mediterranean Sea. Every year, Rwanda sends billions of cubic meters of pure “natural” water on its way to the sea. There is no known national policy for the management of both surface and underground water sources sustainably. With global warming and its effects (is there any more snow on the peaks of the Virunga mountains), combined with depletion of the country’s forests and of course those of other countries in the region, some small lakes (consider what has happened and continues to happen to Lake Karago in Nyabihu district) rivers and streams will continue to dry up. With depleted water resources, conflicts for the scarce available resources will increase, putting more strain on the country’s economic and social development aspirations. It is high time the government of Rwanda, put in place a body/Commission/Authority/Taskforce/Committee, to establish an inventory of the nation’s water resources, draw up policies and programmes for its management and sustainable use, attach value to its use and or abuse, negotiate its export value whether by nature or human activities and help nature in re-routing it from its natural course; from areas where it is plenty to where it is needed within Rwanda. Ends
