 Global Issues in Water Resources

 Understand IWRM concepts and principles

 Relate IWRM , Gender, Agriculture & Fisheries to
Climate Change & community adaptation/mitigation
to Climate Change
 Lectures
 Case Studies
 Role Plays
 Group Discussions
 Video documentaries
 Available funds - GHc300,000
 Aim – Enhance WASH Delivery in the UWR
 Institutions
› Environmental Mgt – Group 1
› Water Supply – Group 2
› NGOs (GWI + others) – Group 3

Time : 30minutes
 Percenatge of Population

0
10
20
30
40
50
East Asia

South Asia

Sub-Saharan
Africa

Eastern
Europe +
Central Asia

Near East +
North Africa

Latin America
+ Caribbean
(WorldBank)
Extreme Poverty

World
Undernourished (FAO)
Co-operative Programme on Water and Climate Research Partnership
Global distribution of precipitation (1961 – 1990)
Global distribution of precipitation (1980 – 2004)

(Source: GPCC – Visualizer)

Global distribution of precipitation

Central Africa, which

represents 18% of
the area of the
continent, receives
49% of its water
Global distribution of precipitation

Northern Africa,
for a similar area,
receives 1.2% of
the continent's
water resources
Central Africa, which
represents 18% of
the area of the
continent, receives
49% of its water
Top 10 fresh water available Countries

Source: Compare Infobase Limited

Global Water Stress – Withdrawal to Availability Ratio

More than 90% of the water returns

to the sea without being harnessed
 No water Stress!!

Could Water Scarcity

play a role?
 ..“the point at which the aggregate
(total) impact of all users impinges on
the supply or quality of water under
prevailing institutional arrangements to
the extent that the demand by all
sectors, including the environment,
cannot be fully satisfied.”
 Question?

 Is Ghana suffering from Water

Scarcity?

 Where in the Nation ?

 Each year around 3,800km3 of fresh water is
withdrawn for human use
 The withdrawn water serves domestic,
industrial and agricultural purposes
 About 70% of all withdrawals is taken by the
agriculture sector
 After withdrawal, there should be enough
water left in the system for environmental
flows
 domestic, industry, agriculture, and
environment – not satisfy →Water Scarcity
Caused by inactions – can be
corrected
Projected Blue Water Scarcity in 2025
(IWMI Podium Analysis; De Fraiture et al. 2001)

Seckler, D., U. Amarasinghe, D. Molden, R. de Silva, and R. Barker. 1998. World

water demand and supply, 1990 to 2025: Scenarios and issues. Research Report
19. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute.
Reducing Water Scarcity – Way forward
The different Sectors working together

Source: Grey and Sadoff, 2006

 Are there competing uses?
 Is there enough water?
Volta River Basin - Ghana
Water demand
Which ..... has the priority?
How is the water allocated?
Avoid conflict and unsustainability

Irrigation
(for food self
sufficiency)

Hydropower
(towards
industrialisation)
 The total annual runoff is 56.4 billion m³

 The Volta river basin accounting for 41.6 billion

m³.

 The mean annual runoff flowing out of Ghana to

the sea is about 40 billion m³

 So....What could be done?

Reducing Water Scarcity – Way forward
The different Sectors working together

Source: Grey and Sadoff, 2006

 56.4 billion m³ shared among 22 million people gives
2563 m³/cap/a

 40 billion m³ shared among 22 million people gives 1818

m³/cap/a
 Flood water?

Photos: Aaron Aduna & N. C. van de Giesen

 Population growth
 Increased prosperity
 Salinity
 intensive agriculture
 lack of proper supply and treatment facilities
 lack of proper institutional arrangements for
water management
 Main concern now in the World

Climate change
A stitch in time saves nine
Catch it or lose it...
34
Source: national geographic Source: newstimeafrica Source: water aid, America
 Movies
 A Global Climate Change (animation)
 This is what global warming looks like
The Water Cycle
Climate
• The average weather conditions of a particular region of the
world over a long period of time, usually 30years or more with
regard to climate elements (temperature, rainfall, air
pressure, etc.)

Climate Variability
• Any deviation in the long-term statistics of climate elements
over a short period of time (Month, Season, Year).

Climate change - (Also called climatic change.)

• Any systematic change in the long-term statistics of climate
elements sustained over several decades or longer.
• Climate change is the change in average weather over time and
over a region. It includes changes in temperature, wind
patterns and precipitation
 The earth has a natural control system, which keeps the
temperatures of the earth at some reasonable values to
support life;
 This control is done by atmospheric gases such as
water vapour, carbon dioxide, nitrous
oxide, ozone and methane, which occur
naturally within the atmosphere (GHGs);
 Human activities such as burning of fossil fuels, bush
clearing including deforestation and animal rearing,
result into emissions of GHGs into the atmosphere;
 This leads to increased temperatures commonly referred
to as global warming; Global Warming has a large
impact on the climate (e.g. occurrence of both
rain (more or less), flood and drought episodes
40
Floods:
Flash flood
Inundation flood
 Flash flood in SEA

http://www.utdhome.com/PhotoShow/view.php?topic=120
Floods

44
45
Source: newstimeafrica

46
 Movie
› Living with Floods
› Evacuating flood victims in Pakistan 2010
› Drought victims trade cattle for food
58
Pollution

59
Russia's Lake Karachay region is considered to be the most polluted location on Planet
Earth. This Russian nuclear weapon production site turned Soviet Union nuclear dumping
location has 120 million curies of radioactivity. This radiation level is equivalent to a lethal
dose after merely an hour of exposure. According to the NRDC, it is also equal to dumping
all of the waste tanks at Washington's Hanford Reservation into a 30-acre lake. In true
environmental crime fashion, the radiation has infiltrated the region's groundwater supply
Metal mining and smelting company, Doe Run Peru has contaminated La Oroya, Peru. Over
35,000 of La Oroya residents have been affected by lead, zinc, copper and sulfur dioxide
pollution from the company's metal mining and processing. According to Time, 99 percent of
the mining town's children have blood levels that surpass suitable limits of exposure. Since
1922, the town in Peru's Andes Mountains has been polluted by mining missions
Citarum, Bandang(Indonesia) hosts the most polluted river on the planet, the Citarum River.
With nearly 5 million residents living near the river, Citarum is a main water source.
The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area is 2010's worst place in the United States for year round
particle pollution, a mix of dust, soot and aerosols. The Arizona region experiences year-
round particle pollution at all hours of the day
Between 1930 and 1998, Dzerzhinsk was the dumping site for 300,000 tons of improperly
disposed of chemical waste. 300,000 people are affected by the city's chemical and toxic
byproduct pollution, such as sarin and VX gas. The pollution is a result of Cold War-era
manufacturing of chemical weapons. According to Mother Nature Network, in 2003, the city’s
death rate surpassed its birth rate by 260 percent.
Greater London has experienced some of the worst air pollution worldwide as a result of car,
factory, agriculture and house pollution. The life expectancy of Britons has been reduced by
nine years due to air pollution. Britain is considered to be Europe's greatest releaser of
nitrogen oxides, exposing 1.5 million people to unsafe quantities of the pollution. According
to a report from Parliament, 50,000 people die prematurely each year due to man-made air
pollution
With more than 6,800 oil spills, which amounts to 300 spills a year, roughly one spill a day,
and 9 to 13 million barrels of oil spilled over 50 years, the Niger Delta remains one of the
most oil-polluted locations on the planet. The nine to thirteen million barrels of oil have been
spilled into the third largest wetland on the planet. Due to continuously ruptured pipelines
and the presence of oil contaminates, the Delta's mangroves, rivers, and wildlife are
perpetually damaged. The United States imports eight percent of its oil from Nigeria, which
is almost half of the country's oil spill production. Nigeria is the fifth largest supplier of oil to
the United States. Shell has stated that 90% of spills are caused by militant thieves who
access the pipelines to steal oil. Watch CNN's coverage of the oil polluted Niger Delta.
According to the American Lung Association, Los Angeles is the city with the most ozone
pollution in the United States. Last year, the average ozone level in Los Angeles was the
worst of any American city and the average particulates level ranked among the botom ten.
While LA may be especially notorious, it's a statewide problem. The local Air Resources
Board estimates that air pollution causes 9,200 premature deaths per year in California
Linfen, China is the most polluted city on earth. According to Mother Nature Network, if one
puts laundry out to dry, it will turn black before finishing drying. Located in China's coal belt,
spending one day in Linfen is equivalent to smoking three packs of cigarettes. 3 million
people are affected by Linfen's coal and particulates pollution, which is residue from
automobile and industrial emissions
Credit: huffingtonpost
Vulnerability is the lack of capacity of the
society to recovery from an impact.
It depends on social or economic factors
 Poverty; (alternatives??)
 Weak institutions;
 Lack of early warning systems;
 Lack of technical capacity;
 Lack of funds to invest;

69
 There are two ways in which society
can respond to climate change:
 Adaptation
 Mitigation

70
 amount of CO2 already emitted into the
atmosphere will result in an enhanced greenhouse
effect for the next 50 years

 Itcan also be defined as "any action that seeks to

reduce the negative effects or to capitalize on the
positive effects, of climate change"

 Adaptive actions may be either anticipatory or

reactive in nature. An example of an anticipatory
adjustment is the development of heat- and
drought-tolerant crop varieties. 71
 An Adaptation strategy has to be developed
within the development context of the country and
should lead to harmonization with the country’s
priorities such as poverty allevation, food security
and disaster managenent
 Adaptation happens at various levels within the
society - national, regional, local, community
and individual

72
 Assess current vulnerability
 Assess future climate risks
 Formulate an adaptation strategy
 Monitoring, evaluation and review
 Engage stakeholders in the adaptation
process
 Assess and enhance adaptive capacity
73
The actions may include:
 Developing and implementing medium and long-term
national adaptation programmes
 Strengthening institutional and technical capacity,
including data collection, analysis and dissemination;
 Strengthening national early warning systems;
 Integration of climate change into the development
planning process at all levels
 What adaptation plans do you have in your community?
› Movie: The rain trappers & Living with floods
› Soil and Water Conservation in Semi-arid areas

74
 Insufficient monitoring and observation systems
 Lack of basic information (Climate, Socio-
economic)
 Settlements in vulnerable areas
 Inappropriate political, legal, technological and
institutional framework
 Lack of capacity to address climate change at all
levels
 Low incomes

75
Decreasing the amount of carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
so as to reduce the rate at which the climate
is changing

76
 Reduce emissions into the atmosphere from
human activities

 Sink CO2 into biomass and water bodies

including swamps

 Reduce Degradation of sinks

› Movie – Amazon rain forest deforestation
77
 natural or artificial reservoir that accumulates and
stores some carbon-containing chemical compound
for an indefinite period
 carbon sequestration - capture of carbon dioxide
(CO2) and may refer specifically to
› process of removing carbon from the atmosphere and
depositing it in a reservoir
› When carried out deliberately, this may also be referred
to as carbon dioxide removal (geoengineering)
 Natural and Artificial sinks

78
 Natural and Artificial sinks
› Natural
 physicochemical and biological processes by oceans
 solubility pump (transport of carbon as dissolved inorganic
carbon) from the ocean's surface to its interior
 The solubility of carbon dioxide is a strong inverse function
of seawater temperature (i.e. solubility is greater in cooler
water)
 Biological pump
 Photosynthesis by terrestrial plants

79
 Natural and Artificial sinks
› Artificial
 Landfills
 Carbon Capture and Storage
 means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions
to global warming. The process is based on capturing
carbon dioxide (CO2) from large point sources, such as
fossil fuel power plants, and storing it in such a way that it
does not enter the atmosphere

 Natural > > > Artificial sinks

80
 Mass in tonnes of carbon x
109
(billions of tonnes of
Carbon reservoir carbon) % of total
Atmosphere 740 1.426
Land plants 550 1.060
Land animals 0.5 0.001
Marine plants (algae) 1.5 0.003
Marine animals 1.5 0.003
Dead organic matter (in soil and
peat) 1600 3.083
Coal 4500 8.672
Oil and gas 500 0.964
Dissolved in the oceans 38000 73.227
Marine sediments 6000 11.562
Totals 51893.5 100.000
 Treaty (Formal agreement b/n 2+ Nations)
› Formulation of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
 stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in
the atmosphere at a level that would prevent
dangerous anthropogenic interference with the
climate system
› Additionally; Formulation of the Kyoto Protocol
(16 Feb, 2005)
 Carbon trading

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IWRM principles helps to
conserve water and use it
more efficiently
 Action:
Reallocation,
efficient use. More water,
Action: less water.
Stakeholder Water Pollution
Risk Allocation Control
assessment, participation
Adaptation

More
Basin
floods,
WATER
RESOURCES Monitoring
Planning
more
MANAGEMENT
droughts
.
Information Flood & Drought Financial
Management Management Management

Source : Cap-Net
 Dry spells

Movie:
o Movie: Excellent Development - Soil & Water
Management
 Fish reproduction, growth and migration
patterns are all affected by temperature,
rainfall and hydrology
(Ficke et al. 2007)

(WorldFish Center 2007)

 Movies
Rise of a new dawn (on women empowerment)
Movies & Discussions
 The oasis of life
 Groundwater & Climate Change
 Professor Richard Carter – WaterAid
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