Adaptation to climate change in international river basins in Africa: a review

Africa’s fresh water resources, which are under pressure, are vital to the support of livelihoods, food security and power generation, as well as growing domestic and industrial needs. This paper reviews literature on climate change and its impacts on water resources, adaptation to climate change for water resource management and conflict and cooperation in transboundary river basins in Africa. It concentrates on surface water resources in international river basins whilst recognising the importance of groundwater. Its aims are to identify:

• what is known about the need and the potential for adaptation to climate change in international river basins, and the processes and factors that may either constrain or enhance adaptation
• opportunities for further research to enhance our understanding of how to promote appropriate adaptation to both current climatic variations and future climate change in international river basins.
  

The paper reviews the following significant challenges to water resources management that Africa faces:

• African water resources are not evenly distributed throughout the continent and are often not located where there is the greatest demand
• the high levels of variability in rainfall and river flows in Africa across a range of spatial and temporal scales have important consequences for the management of water resource systems
• management is challenged by the transboundary nature of many of its river basins
• the hydrological monitoring network for surface water in Africa is poorly developed with generally sparse coverage and short fragmentary records, although some long reliable records exist for strategic locations in parts of the Nile Basin and on major rivers in West Africa
• monitoring networks for groundwater are currently inadequate, whilst soil water is not generally monitored
• current population trends and patterns of water use indicate that more African countries will exceed the limits of their usable landbased water resources by 2025.
  

The paper concludes that climate change is likely to exacerbate many of these challenges. It suggests that further research is needed to examine the factors and processes that are important for cooperation to lead to positive adaptation outcomes, and the increased adaptive capacity of water management institutions is suggested.