ABSTRACT
Water is widely recognized as the primary medium through which climate change affects the environment and human livelihoods that depend on it (UN-Water, 2010). Climate catastrophes are unavoidable and in most cases the resultant loss of balance in human-environment systems has disproportionate negative effects on the poor. Several factors compound the impacts of climate change and undermine people’s adaptive capacity in Africa. These include weak economies, inadequate infrastructure, poverty, high illiteracy levels, weak institutions, limited access to technology and information and extreme dependency on natural resources. While the link between water and climate change is clear, many other serious effects of climate change like food insecurity, rapid urbanization and energy crises are arbitrated via water (Rogers, 2008). For example, crops rely on soil moisture from rainfall or irrigation for growth. Communities sorely dependent on rainfall for a livelihood become extremely vulnerable as rainfall declines and they will naturally seek change. This will result in a domino effect on people’s livelihoods, such as increased rural to urban migration and limited economic growth, among others. The importance of water to life and livelihoods can therefore not be overstated.
