Introduction

 

Greetings! Welcome to my blog. This is the first instalment of what will be my coverage of the many ways development of water resources for African communities have been aided and harmed by politics. I am a third year UCL geography student and I wish to broaden mine and I hope your horizon on the political issues certain regions in the continent face as a result of the allocation of water. Not long ago, I stumbled across the peer-reviewed article Razed, repressed and bought off: The demobilization of the Ogoni protest campaign in the Niger Delta (Demirel-Pegg & Scott, 2015). This was a fascinating article that detailed how the Ogoni people of the Niger Delta protested against the pollution of their lands and their most valuable water source by the company Shell and the Nigerian government. This one example of how politics undermined development in one African nation over this one water source demonstrates how the actions of just some political actors can either hinder or improve development. This got me wondering on what other ways has the political interests of those with power hindered the development of people in Africa.

Ogoni Protests (Guardian, 2019)

I chose Water and Politics as my focus for my blog for exactly this, it covers a broad range of issues such as how political decisions can hinder development. I seek to cover situations such as the one in the Niger Delta. But I also seek to cover how climate change will affect the development of continent and how politics are heavily involved. I will also cover examples of the interlinked nature of politics with development projects themselves as well as the huge role that Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and the United Nations (UN) have played in development. The main theme of my blog will be the ways in which politics especially those concerning governance have hindered the development of water sources. Politics has many dimensions and definitions, but for this blog it’ll mainly be in reference to the interests of those who are in government or govern development projects.

Africa is not a country, nor is it bound to the preconceived notions and ideas that have been attached to it for so long (Wainaina, 2006). Africa is often generalised and spoken about as if it were one nation. To avoid falling into this trap my blogs will focus in on only one nation, Nigeria. Nigeria is the most populated nation in Africa at over 210 million people in 2022. It is also a very diverse nation with over 500 languages being spoken in the nation (Britania, 2022). The Ogoni people of Nigeria is what got me inspired to do this module but Nigeria also has access to the Niger Delta and Lake Chad, two of the most important water resources in the region, for these reasons I chose to stick with Nigeria. I hope you enjoy what I have to share and I’ll see you in the next blog!