Water scarcity is one of the greatest problems facing the world today. The number of countries suffering from a lack of sufficient fresh water will increase – and with it the risk of water-related conflicts. Two focal points of trouble in this respect are the Middle East and Northern Africa, the regions likely to be most seriously by such scenarios.

Water shortage in Africa
Africa is home to around 13% of the world’s population and 11% of the world’s water resources. An insufficiently developed water and wastewater infrastructure constitutes the greatest problem faced by the majority of Africa’s population.

The world’s third-largest continent (30.3 M km²), Africa is about three times as large as Europe and is facing a fundamental problem that has resulted from climate and social conditions. While 52% of the world’s total population lives in arid or semi-arid regions, in Africa 75% of the population are living with water scarcity and water stress. Moreover, 20% of all Africans are confronted with high year-to-year climate variation.

Urbanization and rapid urban development
The past 50 years have seen a three-fold increase in the proportion of the African population that lives in urban areas. Urban population is expected to increase to 500 million by 2020 – versus 138 million in 1990.

On the average, a single resident of Germany uses 130 litres of water per day. In the Saharan regions in Africa only around 10-20 litres of water are available to each person.
South of the Sahara, around 80% of the cities and three-fourths of the rural population have direct access to a water supply. In the 1970s, groundwater was the primary source used for the urban water supply, but since the 1990s, there has been an increasing tendency to draw water from rivers, at water catchment sites located 25 kilometres or more away from the settlements.