Final post...

As we come to the end of this blogging series, I want to reflect on what we have learnt and understand the key takeaways.

As noted in the first post, I was inspired to explore water and food issues across Africa as a result of the scary statistics which illustrated the severity of the situation. What stood out the most was that 333.2 million people across Africa are suffering from food insecurity (WorldHunger 2018), and a lack of access to water. I was unaware of how serious this issue is and the impact it was having on millions of people. This is something that most us take for granted and we do not think twice about issues of water shortages. I wanted to take myself on a journey to explore water and food insecurity issues, in the hopes that I would come away with greater knowledge, understanding and compassion of the complexities surrounding this problem. 

The themes that were examined throughout this blog are as follow: virtual water, implications of Covid-19, accessing groundwater, privatisation of water supplies, hydro politics and sanitation. As you can see, to understand water and food insecurity across Africa, I have gained a wealth of knowledge across a wide range of thematic areas. Water and food complexities cannot be understood in isolation. To understand the full picture, it was vital to consider social, economic, environmental and political issues with managing and accessing water and food.

I have explored the issues of accessing water and the implications of food production through looking at transboundary water resources, tapping into groundwater supplies and the effectiveness of virtual water imports. I delved into ways of managing water and food supplies through privatisation and looking into how sanitation management has improved food production.

There is definitely more to learn as the situation is continuously evolving, with new innovations improving access to water. However, I have presented an insight into some of the key themes and provided a critical analysis of this complex issue.