How did rivers contribute to the economic and political development of modern Africa? How did African and European notions of nature's value and meaning differ? And how have these evaluations of Africa's rivers changed between 1850 and the present day? Drawing upon examples from across the African continent, Developing the Rivers of East and West Africa explores the role African waterways played in the continent's economic, social, and political development and provides the first historical study of the key themes in African river history. Rivers acted as more than important transportation byways; their waters were central to both colonial and postcolonial economic development efforts. This book synthesizes the available research on African rivers with new evidence to offer students of African and environmental history a narrative of how people have used and engaged the continent's water resources. It analyzes key themes in Africa's modern history - European exploration, establishment of colonial rule, economic development, 'green' politics - and each case study provides a lens through which to view social, economic and ecological change in Africa.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 2.5 license. This book offers a devastating look at deeply flawed development processes driven by international finance, African governments and the global consulting industry. It examines major river basin development underway in the semi-arid borderlands of Ethiopia, Kenya and South Sudan and its disastrous human rights consequences for a half-million indigenous people. The volume traces the historical origins of Gibe III megadam construction along the Omo River in Ethiopia—in turn, enabling irrigation for commercial-scale agricultural development and causing radical reduction of downstream Omo and (Kenya's) Lake Turkana waters. Presenting case studies of indigenous Dasanech and northernmost Turkana livelihood systems and Gibe III linked impacts on them, the author predicts agropastoral and fishing economic collapse, region-wide hunger with exposure to disease epidemics, irreversible natural resource destruction and cross-border interethnic armed conflict spilling into South Sudan. The book identifies fundamental failings of government and development bank impact assessments, including their distortion or omission of mandated transboundary assessment, cumulative effects of the Gibe III dam and its linked Ethiopia-Kenya energy transmission 'highway' project, key hydrologic and human ecological characteristics, major earthquake threat in the dam region and widespread expropriation and political repression. Violations of internationally recognized human rights, especially by the Ethiopian government but also the Kenyan government, are extensive and on the increase—with collaboration by the development banks, in breach of their own internal operational procedures. A policy crossroads has now emerged. The author presents the alternative to the present looming catastrophe—consideration of development suspension in order to undertake genuinely independent transboundary assessment and a plan for continued development action within a human rights framework—forging a sustainable future for the indigenous peoples now directly threatened and for their respective eastern Africa states. Claudia Carr’s book is a treasure of detailed information gathered over many years concerning river basin development of the Omo River in Ethiopia and its impact on the peoples of the lower Omo Basin and the Lake Turkana region in Kenya. It contains numerous maps, charts, and photographs not previously available to the public. The book is highly critical of the environmental and human rights implications of the Omo River hydropower projects on both the local ethnic communities in Ethiopia and on the downstream Turkana in Kenya. David Shinn Former Ambassador to Ethiopia and to Burkina Faso Adjust Professor of International Affairs, The George Washington University, Washington D.C.

In Water Brings No Harm, Matthew V. Bender explores the history of community water management on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Kilimanjaro’s Chagga-speaking peoples have long managed water by employing diverse knowledge: hydrological, technological, social, cultural, and political. Since the 1850s, they have encountered groups from beyond the mountain—colonial officials, missionaries, settlers, the independent Tanzanian state, development agencies, and climate scientists—who have understood water differently. Drawing on the concept of waterscapes—a term that describes how people “see” water, and how physical water resources intersect with their own beliefs, needs, and expectations—Bender argues that water conflicts should be understood as struggles between competing forms of knowledge. Water Brings No Harm encourages readers to think about the origins and interpretation of knowledge and development in Africa and the global south. It also speaks to the current global water crisis, proposing a new model for approaching sustainable water development worldwide.

In a sweeping survey of African economies, leading scholars offer the latest research into the biggest current influences on African growth and development, taking account of relevant institutional contexts as well as significant or unique problems that have slowed Africa’s progress.

Water Management in Africa and the Middle East: Challenges and Opportunities

Freshwater is our planet’s most precious resource, and also the least conserved. Freshwater makes up only 3 percent of the total water on the planet, and yet the majority (1.9 percent) is held in a frozen state in glaciers, icebergs, and polar ice fields. This leaves approximately one-half of 1 percent of the total volume of water on the planet as freshwater available in liquid form. This book traces the complex history of the steady growth of humankind’s water consumption, which today reaches some 9.7 quadrillion gallons per year. Along with a larger population has come the need for more drinking water, larger farms requiring extensive irrigation, and more freshwater to support business and industry. At the same time, such developments have led to increased water pollution. Three detailed case studies are included. The first looks at massive water systems in locations such as New York City and the efforts required to protect and transport such resources. The second shows how growth has affected freshwater quality in the ecologically unique and geographically isolated Lake Baikal region of eastern Russia. The third examines the success story of the privatized freshwater system in Chile and consider how that country’s water sources are threatened by climate change.

This new Encyclopedia of Coastal Science stands as the latest authoritative source in the field of coastal studies, making it the standard reference work for specialists and the interested lay person. Unique in its interdisciplinary approach. This Encyclopedia features contributions by 245 well-known international specialists in their respective fields and is abundantly illustrated with line-drawings and photographs. Not only does this volume offer an extensive number of entries, it also includes various appendices, an illustrated glossary of coastal morphology and extensive bibliographic listings.

The Failure of Leadership in Africa’s Development examines the dominant scholarly theories about the cause of Africa’s underdevelopment and argues that none of the traditionally invoked causes—an alleged black racial inferiority, the colonial and neo-colonial expropriation of Africa, purported natural defects in Africa’s geography—is plausible as the explanation of the main cause of the continent’s underdevelopment. Rather, the book argues that the chief cause of the continent’s lag is the failure of leadership of Africa’s ruling classes. This failure of leadership, the book shows, is most evident in the historically traceable indifference of a long succession of Africa’s ruling classes to the scientific and technological advances that were emerging from Europe and Asia during the most critical periods of Africa’s history. It was this indifference, the book argues, that set the stage for the subsequent conquest, expropriation, and technological stagnation of Africa. The book recommends a blueprint for the continent’s future development.

This best selling textbook focuses on the changes in geographical patterns that have taken place in recent years i.e. on the geographical pattern of recent and current economic change. The area covered includes the countries lying between the limits of the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. In this second edition substantial changes have been made in every chapter in order to keep up to date in respect of both the geographical pattern of development and prevailing attitudes towards it. The discussion is still largely confined to the twenty year period between 1956 and 1976, and to the economic component of development