Secondary resources > Geography KS3 > Africa
Overview - Climate - Water - Cities - Resources - Sustainability - Fashion
An introduction to the hydrology of Africa, from desert regions to the rainforests of the Congo basin.
The city of Cape Town! A lot of buildings, many people – estimated at around 5 million across the whole metro area!
That means a lot of people using water… and that’s a problem! This is an area where it's always hard to predict when it's going to rain - or how much rain we'll get. If the water levels of our reservoirs run too low, then one day we might turn on our taps - and nothing would happen.
This region is one the parts of Africa that’s furthest away from the equator. So we have distinct seasons, and quite cold winters. But for our water supply, that’s not an advantage… Many of the hottest countries in Africa - Nigeria, or Cameroon, for example – get strong rainfall, and have major rivers.
Down here, as clouds blow in from the Indian Ocean, they meet the Drakensberg Mountains - which make them rise, and drop all their rain over there in the East.
And on our Atlantic coast, we have the Benguela Current. It drives an upwelling of cold water from the deeps. And that cold water has an effect on this whole area - it cools down the air, which reduces rainfall.
Fortunately we also have Table Mountain. It helps to increase rainfall - and creates a unique biome. But we still live with water insecurity…And just like most urban areas across the world, we use more water than we really need - and waste a lot of it!
In South Africa, 50% of the water supply is used up by the agriculture sector. And with a growing population, what’s left is in high demand. To make things worse, old infrastructure means a lot gets lost through leaky pipes!
Sometimes we experience extreme droughts, and here in Cape Town 2018, things got bad…
We talked about ‘Day Zero’ - the day when the water could run out completely. We got really close to that day…
So all of us here had to make changes. Water rationing was introduced - both for households and industry. Public education campaigns urged us to reduce consumption – and everyone took it seriously. Eventually, we did get some rainfall, which refilled the reservoirs. Day Zero never quite arrived - luckily!
But with climate change making weather patterns more unpredictable, water supply will continue to be a problem for South Africa… we need to keep looking for solutions.
One has involved the small nation of Lesotho. Lesotho is up in the Eastern highlands, and it’s the source of the great Orange River, so, it has a lot of water.
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is a major construction project: a network of tunnels and dams, which transfers water through to South Africa – and provides Lesotho with hydro-electric generation.
It’s helped to meet some of our water needs. But like most large dam projects, it’s also had some serious social and environmental impacts!
And with South Africa’s demand for water continuing to grow, we’re still going to need new projects. … Such as drilling deep boreholes to access groundwater… building desalination stations on the coast… and carefully harvesting rainwater. And of course, we need to conserve water - we just can’t afford to waste any!
We know that climate change will continue to disrupt rainfall, and put pressure on infrastructure - all around the world.
So the solutions we’re developing here in Africa are raising awareness, and helping other countries with their water security issues!
So, with some clever new solutions, and by changing the way that we think about water, we’ll make sure that our taps keep flowing!
Achieving water security in Southern Africa
Download/print a transcript of this episode (pdf).
Chioma is in Cape Town where she explores the issue of a large and growing population and unpredictable rainfall.
In South Africa 50% of the water supply is used by the agricultural sector, with the remaining 50% available for the growing population. There has been anxiety in the city that ‘Day Zero’ will come - a day when pressure on the water supply is so severe that taps run dry. This video explores how such a crisis was averted.
The video also explores the Highlands Water Project in Lesotho to understand how a water transfer scheme moves water from that country to South Africa to help increase water security. As well as water transfer schemes this video also explores other solutions to water security, such as harvesting rainwater and desalinisation stations.
Teacher Notes
Download/print the Teacher Notes for this episode (pdf).
Teacher Notes prepared in partnership with the Geographical Association.
Before watching the video
- Ask students why water is an important resource and what could happen if one day we turned on our taps and no water came out.
- Locate South Africa and Lesotho on a map.
- Discuss with students the differences between water security and water insecurity. Ask students what factors might lead to water security and insecurity.
- Introduce key terms such as:
Reservoir: a large natural or man-made lake used as a source of water supply.
Water insecurity: the lack of adequate and safe drinking water.
Infrastructure: the facilities, systems and services needed to serve a country or city such as roads, power supplies and sewage systems.
Rationing: only allowing a small amount of something because there is a limited supply.
Water transfer scheme: moving water from an area of surplus to an area of deficit.
While watching
You may wish to stop at relevant points during this short film to pose questions and check understanding, or wait until the end. Useful questions might include:
- Why does a growing population require more water?
- What is water insecurity?
- What is 50% of the water used for in South Africa?
- What is ‘Day Zero’?
- Why did water need to be rationed?
- How was water consumption reduced?
- How was Day Zero averted?
- What is a water transfer scheme?
- What other solutions are there to water security?
After watching
- Divide the class into groups to research ways in which water security can be reached - for example, drilling boreholes, building desalinisation plants and harvesting rainwater. Students should look for examples of each and investigate the positives and negatives of each scheme. These can then be presented to the rest of the class to build up a case study of water security solutions in South Africa.
- Students could then rank the solutions from most effective to least effective using the advantages and disadvantages they have investigated.
- Students could then create their own water conservation campaign, using inspiration from their investigation as well as their own ideas.
Where next?
- Why was the Day Zero campaign so successful in averting a water crisis?
- In mid-January 2018 the city authorities in Cape Town announced they would be forced to shut off most of the water supply if conditions didn’t improve and the water levels of the major dams declined to 13.5%. Thankfully Day Zero never arrived.
- Research the campaign and communication strategy around Day Zero. What was done by both the residents and city leaders which made the campaign so successful?
- Some of the strategies were very simple - even light-hearted - including ‘two-minute shower songs’ and catchy slogans for toilet use, some of which were also used in the UK in the 1970s. Others relied on much wider city communication and stronger messaging.
- Share some of the poster campaigns with students. Why do they feel the campaign worked?
Links
Impacts of water insecurity:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zg2mycw/revision/6
Strategies to increase water supply:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zybtjty/revision/3
Water resources:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zkxsn9q
Increasing water supply:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zwhvydm
Water supply and consumption:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zgx382p/revision/2
Curriculum notes
This clip will be relevant for teaching Geography at KS3 in England and Northern Ireland, 3rd/4th Level in Scotland and Progression Step 4 in Wales.
In the English National Curriculum this video can be used to help teach the following:
- Using maps of the world to focus on Africa, focusing on the environmental regions, hot deserts, key physical features, countries and major cities.
- Understand geographical similarities, differences and links between places through the study of human and physical geography of a region within Africa.
- Physical geography relating to hydrology and coasts.
- Understand how human and physical processes interact to influence and change landscapes, environments and the climate and how human activity relies on effective functioning of natural systems.
Resources
Teacher Notes
Download/print the Teacher Notes for this episode (pdf).
Transcript
Download/print the transcript of this episode (pdf).
Secondary resources > Geography KS3 > Africa
Overview - Climate - Water - Cities - Resources - Sustainability - Fashion
