Water & Environmental Change in Africa

  While reading the news I stumbled across devastating events that took place in Ghana, with major flooding from dam spillage destroying communities in the dark shadows of two major dams-  Akosombo and Kpong . This isn't a nice welcome back to my blog, but this is the harsh reality of environmental change, but thought t his next blog post should centre around dams as a national scale of water management. Dams have played a key role in societies development in the past thousands of years (Figure 1), allowing for a permanent water source for communities to settle  as they had access to a stable  water supply, some flood control, irrigation for crops  ( Altinbilek, 2002 ).  No longer did people rely as much on seasonal rains, as reservoirs accumulate water . Farming became a way to support a bigger community with food instead of hunting and gathering .  Figure 1: The remains of the Sadd el Kafara dam constructed in 2600 BC, in Cairo, Egypt . Constru...

Hey guys! I'm Beth, a final year physical geography student at UCL. I have a keen interest in environmental change and the physical process and causes which change our plan et. Living in London the weather, specifically rain, makes up half the small talk I have, along with the following debate about whether or not to bring an umbrella. Rain here is seen as somewhat of an inconvenience to everyday lives,   which in fact is something we should take for granted. Access to enough, and safe, water is not a universal luxury across the world,  with around two billion people today not being able to access safe drinking water  (Figure 1).   There are many other uses for water which allow food security, development and more, but without it can lead to a struggle in everyday life. This blog will explore water in Africa, a nd to explore the stereotype that Africa has no water, and how they manage and use it.   Figure 1: Statistics highlighting the inaccessibility to wa...