ABSTRACT

In 2000 the United Nations adopted eight goals to be achieved by 2015. The first of

these Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is the target to halve hunger by 2015

(UN, 2005). Unfortunately, as far as the first goal is concerned, not much ground

appears to have been covered in sub-Saharan Africa (UN, 2008) and chances of

achieving the goals by the set target are getting slimmer everyday. Sub-Saharan

Africa contains the highest number of malnourished people and has the largest

increase in the number of hungry people (FAO, 2001). The annual water use for crop

productivity is 7 130 x 109 m3 a-1 (de Fraiture et al., 2007) while the economically

available water is 9 000 – 14 000 x 109 m3 a-1 (FAO, 2003). This shows that the

largest use sector of the available water is agriculture. The demand for water for food

increases by 1300 m3 ca-1 a-1 for each additional person (Rockström et al., 2009).