Hydropolitical conflict across Africa

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LWHP) is a binational proposal with the aim of supplying South Africa with water from the Lesotho highlands, which would be mutually beneficial to both parties. Lesotho wanted to harness its copious 'white gold' water supply into financial gain, by supplying the water-scarce South Africa with a valuable commodity ( Maro, 2011 ). This project, however was greatly overshadowed by hydro political conflict, whereby cooperation between the two riparian states was centred principally on the mutual gain of each's political elite (Mwangi, 2007) . Figure 1 - Map showing the LWHP and its context in South Africa  At the crux of this hydro political conflict, is the concept of water scarcity, where insufficient supply meets copious demand, which perpetually results in conflict among and within nations ( Gleick, 1993) . The project was first suggested by the British High Commissioner of Lesotho, when the country was still under British rule, a...

Welcome to my blog!!  This site will endeavour to explain and analyse, in a short, sweet and succinct manner, the nature of hydropolitical conflict and how said conflict comes about across Africa, with a particular focus on  eastern and southern Africa.  In its simplest sense, the term "water conflict" describes any disagreement or dispute over or about water, where external social, economic, legal, political or military intervention is needed to resolve the problem (Ashton, 2007) . My site is also not restricted to purely African  hydropolitics,  other areas in Africa and even across the globe will be used as comparative examples, as hydropolitics is such a wide spread and prolific phenomenon.  I first became fascinated with water conflicts when I was 15, learning about a squatter settlement near Nairobi, Kenya, called Kibera which has a complex network of water supply systems (Wesangula, 2016) . This case study really emphasised to me the ...