[Ubuntu Column] Africa’s water security, what is more important than water is the system

Seongsoo Kim, Director of the European and African Studies Center at Hanyang University

[※ Editor's note = Yonhap News Global Cultural Exchange Group is publishing the 'Ubuntu Column' in collaboration with major domestic universities and African research institutes. The Ubuntu column features several professors and experts who have been studying Africa, the home of humanity and the ‘land of opportunity,’ for a long time. We expect a lot of interest from readers in the Ubuntu column, which looks at and analyzes Africa from various perspectives. Ubuntu is an African Bantu word meaning ‘I exist because you are,’ and represents community spirit and humanity.]

Africa's water crisis is not simply a problem caused by a lack of water. Even though there are rivers and lakes, there is not enough drinking water, and even though there are large dams and water purification plants, there are many places that are not operating properly. When there is a drought, the water dries up, and when there is heavy rain, the city is flooded. Even if water pipes are installed, tap water is cut off due to leaks and lack of power. There is water, but it cannot be used, and there are facilities, but they are not moving. Ultimately, the crisis facing Africa is not so much the absolute amount of water as it is the ability to stably secure, supply, and manage it for a long time, that is, water security.

It is no coincidence that water has emerged as a central agenda for African politics in 2026. The African Union (AU) has set this year's theme as 'Ensuring sustainable water availability and safe sanitation systems to achieve Agenda 2063'. This is the first time that water and sanitation have come to the fore as a central agenda at an AU summit. Last February, the ‘Africa Water Vision 2063 and Policy’ was also officially launched.

Reality is desperate. More than 400 million Africans lack access to basic drinking water, and approximately 700 million lack adequate sanitation services. When there is a lack of water, agriculture and food falter and power and industry shrink. Hygiene and health also deteriorate. As the foundation for survival collapses, forced migration increases and conflicts over water and land increase. Now water is not just a field of environmental policy, but also health, food, and energy. It is a political issue that determines the foundation of industry and jobs and the stability and peace of the country.

Therefore, water shortage and water security need to be viewed separately. If water scarcity asks how much water there is, water security asks how safely and sustainably that water can be used. This includes whether supply can be provided even after droughts and floods, whether water leakage can be reduced, whether residents can afford the bills, and whether there are engineers and budget to manage the facilities. More important than how many facilities are built is whether they will function properly 5 or 10 years later.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo illustrates this paradox well. Although it has enormous water resources and the Congo River, in the 2025 survey, only 43% of the population used basic drinking water services and only 15% used basic sanitation facilities. As conflict, displacement, flooding, and rapid urbanization coincided, the drinking water crisis led to an infectious disease crisis. Last year, cholera spread to its worst level in 25 years, and this year, Ebola is spreading. Just because there is a river does not automatically provide safe water.

Conversely, North Africa, where water itself is scarce, is finding a breakthrough in the combination of technology and management. Morocco is moving toward meeting approximately 60% of its drinking water needs through desalination by 2030. However, desalination is not a panacea. It requires a lot of power, and the high concentration of salt water generated during the treatment process puts a strain on the marine ecosystem. As facilities are concentrated in coastal cities, water accessibility in inland and rural areas is lagging behind. What is important is not the scale of the technology, but a system that can be operated and maintained according to local conditions.

In the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa, water is life. When wells dry up, livestock die, and pastoralists move in search of water and grazing land. Conflicts increase when migration routes overlap with agricultural fields, and the collapse of livelihoods leads to forced migration and the expansion of space for armed groups to operate. In such areas, it is more effective to combine emergency groundwater, small-scale rainwater storage facilities, solar pumps, and distributed water purification facilities according to local conditions rather than a single large facility. This is why water security is human security.

Urbanization creates another problem. Not only insufficient water, but also polluted water and floods are threats. Ghana's GAMA (Greater Accra Metropolitan Area) project does not stop at supplying drinking water, but also integrates toilets, sewage treatment, and sanitation improvement into one system. According to the World Bank, more than 610,000 people have benefited from improved sanitation services and more than 660,000 have been provided with clean water. It is in the same context that Kigali, Rwanda, is promoting nature-based solutions (NbS) to reduce flooding and improve water quality by restoring urban wetlands. Man-made facilities are not the only infrastructure. If nature is designed well, it can become infrastructure that protects the city.

A further complication is that water crosses borders. About 90% of Africa's surface water crosses international borders, and about 40% of the population relies on shared aquifers. The Nile River is a representative example. Ethiopia expects power production and industrialization through the 'Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam' (GERD), but for downstream Egypt, the Nile River is survival itself. Stable water discharge and flood management are also important in Sudan. In the end, it is difficult to resolve the conflict simply by calculating who will get more water.

The solution lies in moving beyond distribution of water to sharing of benefits. It is also possible to establish a principle of joint discharge during droughts, share hydrological and meteorological data, and allow downstream countries to stably purchase electricity produced upstream at a reasonable price. Not only the amount of water is shared, but also the benefits from electricity, agricultural productivity, and flood control. Shared resources must lead to shared data, and shared data must lead to common governance.

The practice of treating water, food, and energy separately must also change. Zambia relies on hydropower for about 80% of its electricity production, but the recent drought has exposed the vulnerability of this structure. As water supply decreased, power became scarce, and both industry and daily life were shaken. Increasing irrigation can increase food production but reduce downstream flow, and indiscriminate distribution of solar pumps can hasten groundwater depletion. One solution creates another problem. Therefore, water policy requires an approach that views water, food, and energy as one system.

Ultimately, the key is to shift the focus from building more facilities to sustainable operations. The AU believes that tens of billions of dollars in additional financial resources are needed every year to achieve 'Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6', namely ensuring and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. However, simply increasing money does not guarantee water security. There must be a system to design and coordinate the project, professional manpower to operate the facility, a reasonable fee system, a stable maintenance budget, and data to support the policy. Water security depends not on the number of facilities but on the strength of the system that keeps those facilities operating for a long time.

Korea’s cooperation with Africa must also change. We need to break away from the method of building a water purification plant or dam and then support it by combining construction, operation, and maintenance into one ecosystem. In North Africa, desalination and water reuse linked to renewable energy, groundwater and distributed facilities in the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa, water supply and sewerage, sanitation, and water leakage management in areas undergoing urbanization, and hydrological data and joint operating systems in shared water systems can be prioritized. What is needed is not ‘more of the same facilities,’ but ‘cooperation to leave a system suited to the region for a longer period of time.’

This December, the 'UN Water Conference' co-hosted by Senegal and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be held in Abu Dhabi. This is a place to accelerate the implementation of SDG 6. The fact that the AU elevated water and sanitation to the top of the continent's agenda this year is in line with this global trend. Water must now be redefined not as a simple survival resource but as a strategic asset that creates growth and peace.

There is a Nigerian proverb that says, ‘Water has no enemies.’ Since no one can live without water, water cannot be a resource only for one country or one generation. What is needed now is not more water facilities, but a managed system. Africa's water security must begin with better connection, long-term management, and fair sharing of the water it has. Facilities can be built, but systems are created when people work together. That is the most basic infrastructure that will turn water into an opportunity rather than a crisis and put Agenda 2063 into action.

※ Contributions by external writers may differ from Yonhap News’ editorial direction.

▲ Professor Seongsu Kim

Currently Director of the European and African Studies Institute and Professor of Political Science and Diplomacy at Hanyang University, PhD in Political Science at the University of Southern California, USA, author of 'New Paradigm of Comparative Politics', 'Understanding Modern Africa' and many others, policy advisor to public institutions such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Korea-Africa Foundation, and the Korean Council for Overseas Koreans, and a Korean member of the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Committee.