Especialista inglês no Porto para analisar gestão de recursos hídricos em África

Água: Especialista inglês no Porto para analisar gestão de recursos hídricos em África

Porto, 13 Mai (Lusa) - O inglês Tony Allan, um dos maiores especialistas mundiais em gestão de água, é um dos convidados do colóquio sobre gestão de recursos hídricos em África, que o Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto realiza em Outubro.

Tony Allan, que venceu recentemente o Stockholm Water Prize, o maior prémio internacional dedicado aos recursos hídricos, tem-se dedicado ao estudo da gestão da água no Médio Oriente e no Norte de África.

Ana Cascão, do Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto (CEAUP), revelou hoje à Lusa que o colóquio contará também com a presença de Tony Turton, director do African Water Issues Research Unit, na África do Sul.

A gestão dos recursos hídricos em África é o tema central do colóquio que o CEAUP vai realizar a 2 e 3 de Outubro, tendo recebido mais de sete dezenas de propostas de comunicações para este encontro.

"As propostas abrangem os mais variados tópicos, desde o abastecimento de água em capitais africanas à construção de mega-barragens hidroeléctricas, passando pela partilha de recursos hídricos transfronteiriços", salientou Ana Cascão, que é investigadora da Universidade de Londres e do London Water Research Group.

Cerca de um terço das propostas de comunicações enviadas à organização são da autoria de investigadores portugueses, adiantando Ana Cascão que os investigadores africanos são responsáveis por outro terço das propostas, enquanto o restante é da autoria de investigadores europeus e americanos.

No encontro, que reunirá académicos, investigadores e quadros técnicos, vão estar em discussão os principais factores que influenciam a procura de água, mas também as soluções que se apontam para o problema e qual o contributo que pode ser dado pelas organizações internacionais e pela comunidade científica.

Recentemente, na I Semana Africana da Água, que decorreu em Tunis, na Tunísia, os ministros desta área aprovaram uma declaração que exorta os estados africanos a garantirem a segurança do abastecimento de água para as necessidades sociais, económicas e ambientais.

Nesta declaração, os ministros signatários defendem que a gestão equitativa dos recursos hídricos "deve permanecer a primeira prioridade de desenvolvimento no continente nos próximos anos".

No mesmo sentido, recomendaram que a próxima Cimeira da União Africana, prevista para Julho, no Egipto, adopte medidas que melhorem a gestão da água no continente.

Apesar do continente africano, especialmente na zona austral, possuir alguns dos maiores lagos e rios do mundo, além de importantes bacias hidrográficas, o acesso à água continua a ser difícil para uma grande percentagem da população.

Por essa razão, a Africa Subsaariana está a sentir especiais dificuldades no cumprimento do Objectivo de Desenvolvimento do Milénio que prevê uma redução para metade da população sem acesso a água potável.

A situação pode, no entanto, melhorar, já que os líderes da Comunidade de Desenvolvimento da Africa Austral têm dado sinais de estarem atentos para a necessidade de uma correcta gestão dos recursos hídricos disponíveis.

O Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto foi fundado em Novembro de 1997, constituindo desde 1999 uma unidade de investigação financiada pela Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, que reúne actualmente 31 investigadores.

© 2008 LUSA - Agência de Notícias de Portugal, S.A.

Link: http://ww1.rtp.pt/noticias/index.php?article=345723&visual=26&rss=0

Water in Africa: Hydro-Pessimism or Hydro-Optimism?

How are water resources being managed in Africa? What are the main challenges concerning access, distribution and allocation of freshwater resources in the continent? What are the driving forces that shape current and future demand for water? What are the solutions being developed by communities, policy-makers, private sector and environmental activists? What are water scientists and international donor organisations contributing?

Pessimists highlight water scarcity and insecurity, water inequity and the conflict potential at local and regional levels. They forecast a gloomy future for Africa. Can they be wrong? Optimists emphasise the potential of improved water management practices, water policy reforms and socially, economically and environmentally sustainable policies. They argue that local adaptive capacities can be enhanced and regional hydropolitical cooperation can be established. Water optimists believe in windows of opportunity to improve water resources management and that Africa’s water crises can be addressed. Can they be right?

The Centre of African Studies invites researchers and practitioners to contribute with water management experiences and case-studies from the diverse regions of Africa, and to participate in a wide debate on hydro-pessimism and hydro-optimism in the African context.


Call for Abstracts
Authors are invited to submit an abstract of 250 words by the 30th April 2008, containing the following information:
§ Proposed title
§ Authors’ names
§ Contact address (institution, email and telephone)
§ Paper proposal
§ Keywords

Presentations can be submitted in English, French or Portuguese. Abstracts will be reviewed by a Scientific Committee, and authors will be notified by email of acceptance or refusal of their proposals by the end of June 2008. Accepted papers can be published in the Conference Proceedings (paper and CD/ROM formats). There are no registration fees.


All abstracts must be submitted via email to ana.cascao@kcl.ac.uk

Centre of African Studies - Porto, Portugal
2-3 October 2008
For additional information contact:
Centro de Estudos Africanos
Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto
Via Panorâmica s/n 4150-564 Porto – Portugal
Email: ceaup@letras.up.pt
Website: http://www.africanos.eu
Tel./Fax: +351 22 607 71 41

Link: www.semide.net/thematicdirs/news/PDF/CEA_WaterConference2008

Sharing land and water resources across borders - Gambella regin

Sharing land and water resources across borders – the case-study of Gambella region, Western Ethiopia


The aim of this proposal is to analyse contemporary crisscrossing borderland issues in Gambella, a region located in the Western boundary of Ethiopia with Sudan. The focus will be mainly in transboundary land and water issues. Gambella is a water-abundant region, home of farmers and pastoralist communities that have been moving throughout history between Ethiopian and Sudanese territories. The rivers Baro and Akobo have origins in Ethiopia, cross the administrative political borders and join in the southern Sudanese territory becoming the Sobat River, which will later join the Nile River. The land of the region is extremely fertile and it is in continuum with the swamps of the Sudd region of Sudan. Water and land resources have a strong transboundary character in this region.

Gambella is an example of a complex environmental ecosystem that has been shared historically by the indigenous populations, such as the Anuak (sedentary communities) and the Nuer (nomadic communities), among others. Patterns of cooperation, but also of conflict, have marked the relations between the diverse groups. The race for resources (e.g. gold, ivory, slaves) in the region has roots in the colonial era, when the English administration and the Ethiopian Empire competed for the political control of the region. However, the competition for land and water resources became acute during the 1980s when a large number of outsider populations arrived to the region. Newcomers came from the two sides of the administrative borders. On one hand, populations arrived from the Ethiopian highlands in result of the resettlement policies pursued by the central government of Addis Ababa. On the other hand, civil populations, refugees and military contingents arrived from Southern Sudan in result of the resume of the civil war in Sudan, resulting on spill over effects in the Ethiopian side.

These environmental, social, economic and political pressures have transformed the Gambella region in a prone-conflict area. The internal and regional dynamics have concomitantly affected the political relations between the diverse groups. Currently, the relationship between the Gambella region and the federal government of Ethiopia put in evidence an uneasy complex political puzzle. Furthermore, the unfinished peace process in Southern Sudan represents additional political stress for the region.

This research is the result of the literature review available about the region and a fieldwork visit to Gambella region in January 2008. The preliminary conclusion is that the lines of conflict(s) are blurred and difficult to grasp, and research may eventually be a useful tool to prevent further conflicts. The political manipulation of identities, already pointed out by several observers, can turn the problem more sensitive in the near future.

The parallelism between Gambella (Ethiopia) and Darfur (Western Sudan) situations might be an overstatement, but brings to mind that environmental-based conflicts can easily turn into major political and armed conflicts.

AEGIS-AFRICAN STUDIES IN EUROPE
CORTONA SUMMER SCHOOL 2008
BORDERS AND BORDER-CROSSINGS IN AFRICA
Cortona, Tuscany, 16-22 June 2008

Link: www.aegis-eu.org/pdf/CortonaProgramme2008.pdf

Ethiopian stake on the Nile

Lecture on Hydro-Politics

Master of Political Science

Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

December 2006

Why self-pity? Why the insistence of Ethiopia on the self-pity discourse concerning the Nile issue? Why does Ethiopia keeps accusing Egypt of deterring her from using the waters of the Nile inside the Ethiopian territory? Why to look for the enemy ‘outside’, without considering the internal weaknesses?

One can carry several research and analyses to understand how Egypt could always prevent Ethiopia from using the Nile waters… for decades, or even for centuries according to the mythology. To find out the Egyptian strategies and tactics to divert Ethiopia from the Nile is an interesting puzzle to be built…. Egypt has a stronger economy, a superior military capacity, good experts well-known in the international milieu, economic support from the US, unquestionable strategic geography, etc etc… but what it really matters is not to understand the diverse factors that detained Ethiopia from using the Nile waters?

Let’s see the geography… multiplicity of highlands, dramatic gorges, small plots of land, overpopulated highlands and underpopulated lowlands. Let’s see the economics... agricultural economy, rainfed agriculture, low trade, economy of war during 30+2 years. Let’s see politics… war as a priority, underdeveloped economy, famine crises with political consequences, lack of investment in public works, including water infrastructures. Well… we could continue to find the internal reasons for the failure of Ethiopia on using the Nile waters… we could crisscross these internal factors with the external factors and find a lot of interesting facts.

But the question keeps being…. Why self-pity? There are ways of starting to use the water… it is happening already and it will happen in the future, with or without governmental decisions and actions. When there is scarcity, there is vulnerability; therefore there is adaptation (resilience) or non-adaptation (contestation). If I was an anthropologist I would probably go to study how at the local level the different social groups deal with water uses and strategies to manage the water resources. Although, the level to be taken into account here is the regional level, or the Basin level if it sounds better! Therefore it is important to focus on how international political economy influences the water politics in the Nile Basin.

Indeed the designation of this course is Hydropolitics, but I do not really think that there is something that we can call hydropolitics… hydropolitics exist in the wider context of the international and regional power relations. Thus, if hydropoltics exist they are submersed in wider geopolitics… the water is one element among others, and maybe not the most relevant. Although it is important to keep in mind that water is firstly and foremost a political resource!

Resisting Hegemony on the Nile

RESISTING HEGEMONY ON THE NILE

12-13 May 2007
III Workshop on Hydro-Hegemony
London School of Economics
University of London - UK

Link: http://www.soas.ac.uk/research/our_research/projects/waterissues/papers/39686.pdf

Resistance and Counter-Hegemony in Transboundary River Basins

RESISTANCE AND COUNTER-HEGEMONY IN TRANSBOUNDARY RIVER BASINS

12-13 May 2007
III Workshop on Hydro-Hegemony
London School of Economics
University of London - UK

Link: http://www.soas.ac.uk/research/our_research/projects/waterissues/papers/39685.pdf

When Power and Water Mix: How to Share International Water Resources?

When Power and Water Mix: How to Share International Water Resources?

Water and oil do not mix! Do water and power mix? The management of water resources by nature involves political decisions, with social, economic and environmental implications. Water management at the national level tends to be politicised. And which is the scenario when water resources are shared by two or more countries? Which is the role of power relations, at the regional and global levels, in the management of transboundary water resources? Worldwide there are 263 transboundary river basins, whereas riparian states experience asymmetrical power (coercive, bargaining, discursive and structural) to influence the sharing of the common water resources. The distribution and allocation of water among riparian countries tends to be extremely inequitable – such are the cases between Israel and Palestine, or Egypt and Ethiopia. Water and political power do mix! Examples of hydro-hegemonic configurations in the Nile, Jordan and Tigris-Euphrates river basins will be given.

19 de Dezembro
III Ciclo Anual
Jovens Cientistas Sociais 2007-2008
Centro de Estudos Sociais
Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra
Portugal

Link: http://www.ces.uc.pt/misc/jcs3_ana_cascao.php