ABSTRACT
This Swahili proverb, roughly translated as ‘water in a coconut shell is like an ocean to an ant’, speaks to the importance of context in how we perceive resources. Valuation and use of water clearly depend upon whether one is taking shelter in the humid rainforests of the Congo Basin or wandering the arid landscapes of the Kalahari Desert. The relationship between the availability of water and human demand for this vital resource guides discussion in this chapter. It is a complex relationship in eastern and southern Africa where, like many areas of the world at the beginning of the twenty-first century, increasing demand for water must be reconciled with a resource that not only varies dramatically in time and space but is also highly susceptible to contamination.
