Water conflicts in Africa

Abstract

Nowadays, there are one billion people who are unable to get clean water on a regular basis and this number according to forecasts is about to be tripled in some decades. Some darker expectations go even further: until 2025 66% of the human population will not have enough drink water. Thus water scarcity and water pollution are obviously one of the biggest problems of the 21st century. This is also proven by the fact that 5 to 8 million people die annually and another 300 million get sick due to the consumption of polluted water – mostly in Africa and Asia, in the heavily polluted parts of developing countries. Water scarcity beside the stall or even the complete failure of community services causes other negative consequences as well. It is enough to think about food scarcity, migration, wars for water or desertification.