Covid19 pandemic as a further driver of water scarcity in Africa
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Covid19 pandemic as a further driver of water scarcity in Africa Alberto Boretti
Ó Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Population growth, even if coupled to economic growth, and resources, were already on a collision course, especially in Africa. The 2019 United Nations World Water Development Report provided a dramatic status of world water, however without questioning the main drivers of an imminent water crisis, that were unbounded, unequal, economic, and population growth, within the context of reducing resources in a finite world. Despite the report was a small step forward in awareness, still, it was not proposing satisfactory remedies. With business-asusual, without acting on the drivers of water scarcity, regional water crises were inevitable in the next 3 decades, starting from Africa. Constrained by political, financial, and energy burdens, the technological improvements that have helped humanity to deal with the increased demand for water, food, and energy over the last 70 years, were likely not enough to avoid the water crisis. On top of forecast is the Covid19 pandemic. Coronavirus cases are (August 4, 2020) 18,446,065 and fatalities are 697,202 worldwide, and still growing. The containment measures enforced for Covid19 infection following the examples in the United Kingdom have already produced significant damage to the world economy. This will limit social expenditures in general, and the expenditures for the water issue in A. Boretti (&) Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia e-mail: [email protected]
particular. The water crisis will consequently become worse in the next months, with consequences still difficult to predict. This will be true especially for Africa, where the main problem has always been poverty. There is the opportunity of significant health, food, and water crisis, especially in Africa. While the concepts of washing hands and social distancing that are difficult to apply haven’t produce so far major issues with the Covid19 outbreak in Africa, borders closure, restrictions on movement, and more poverty will translate in a lack of food and water potentially much more worrying than the virus spreading. Keywords Water scarcity Energy availability Global economy Governance change Technological advances Food challenge Covid19 Introduction During the last 70 years, the world has experienced unprecedented, dramatic growth, characterized by a sharply increasing population and economy, accompanied by a generally increasing life span and quality of life, all phased with the growing use of energy, food, and water (ourworldindata.org). Unbounded growth in a finite world of finite resources is however impossible, as there is the certainty that growth and resources will eventually collide (Boulding 1973). Before the Covid19 outbreak, water scarcity was more worrying than food shortages (Boretti and Rosa 2019).
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The water crisis is indirectly related to energy and financial crises (Boretti and
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