This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Water demand in Africa grew by around 26% between 2010 and 2020, yet around 717 million people lacked a piped water supply in 2020, according to research published in Nature. The findings indicate that water scarcity in some parts of Africa may be due to a lack of infrastructure, rather than a lack of available water.
The work provides a comprehensive map for water demand in different sectors, highlighting issues that need to be addressed to increase the availability of water in Africa, which forms part of Sustainable Development Goal 6. Understanding whether water demands can be met requires a detailed assessment of water availability and usage. In Africa, water availability differs across the continent, and demand is unmet in many regions.
However, the variation in supply and demand is not well characterized, which can make it difficult to implement informed water-management decisions. To address the lack of data, Davy Vanham and colleagues produced a detailed Africa-wide estimate of water demand for 2020. Six sectors were studied for water demand: municipal, irrigation, livestock, manufacturing (including subsectors such as food, clothing and industrial materials), power plants and mining.
Data were collected across 49 countries from national statistics, from records from more than 450 water companies, 2,534 power plants and 682 mines, and from maps of crops and livestock. The estimated total annual water demand for 2020 was around 347 km³ (91.7 trillion gallons) of water, compared with around 274 km³ (72.4 trillion gallons) in 2010. Irrigation accounted for 65% of the demand, followed by household and city supply accounting for 17%, electricity accounting for 10%, and manufacturing, livestock and mining accounting for the remaining demand.
Alongside areas of water scarcity, limited infrastructure in some regions means demand is not met despite sufficient supply. In total, an estimated 642 million people (mainly in urban settlements) have access to piped water, but 717 million people have no piped supply. The findings demonstrate the value of mapping water use and availability at local scales and within different sectors, providing detailed data that may highlight where investments are needed to increase water access.
Davy Vanham et al., Spatial and sectoral water demand assessment for the African continent, Nature (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-026-11199-8 MA in English, copy editor since 2021 with experience in higher education and health content. Dedicated to trustworthy science news.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
