Water cooperation for accelerated agenda 2030 implementation: special focus on Africa
The working paper highlights the initial cooperation challenges identified in the assessment undertaken by International Centre for Water Cooperation in 32 basins in Africa. This is the initiative’s first analysis of some of the key challenges of cooperation involving transboundary waters in Africa. Many countries are facing increasing challenges of social, economic, political and ecosystem risks related to too little, too much, and too polluted water. Water scarcity, water disasters and extreme weather events, such as floods and droughts, and failures of climate change mitigation and adaptation, continue to rank among top global risks as assessed in the Global Risk Report by the World Economic Forum (2022). Projections by OECD show that 40 per cent of the world’s population currently lives in water-stressed river basins, and that water demand will rise by 55 per cent between 2000 and 2050. More than 40 % of the world’s population currently lives in water-stressed river basins and increased pressures on water may displace as many as 700 million people by 2030.
