Many cities across the globe owe their locations to rivers and the trading opportunities and water sources these rivers provided. In recent years, cities across China are beautifying their water fronts, and cities as diverse as Singapore and Seoul are turning their rivers into assets as part of urban redevelopment schemes or restoring them in an effort to bring nature back to the city. But many other cities in Asia have their backs turned to their rivers.
Where rivers were once trading and transport arteries, nowadays many of them have suffered neglect as roads, and evolving trading patterns have supplanted the rivers’ economic and social functions. Their decline has been accompanied by environmental destruction, as their waters have become polluted and serve as the dumping ground for solid waste.Moreover, riverbank settlements evolved into legally ambiguous spaces, as old settlements were detached from land formalization regimes and were subjected to environmental deterioration from the rivers.
Far from being an asset, these rivers have become an eyesore—and occasionally also a threat, owing to flooding exacerbated by poor planning and a poor understanding of the place of these water bodies in the wider regional eco-system, according to documents. Drawing best practices from well developed countries, Africa need to invest on its water bodies to reduce the huge amount of unemployment rate and thereby realize sustainable peace and development. An economic development which focuses on effective utilization of water bodies is highly lucrative.
A huge number of employment can be created through launching intensive development of urban rivers. The practice of urban agriculture and fishery enables inhabitants to get rid of transport cost. Scholars claim that Africans should invest on creating job opportunities which focuses on urban water management and effective utilization of water bodies. Mister Lamin Manah Director in UNDPs Regional Service Center for Africa said that though Africa has untapped natural resource and huge number of manpower, yet it has not registered the desired economic development and created enormous job opportunities for the youth.
Apart from creating work opportunities for the youth, an integrated urban water based development has paramount importance to increase tourist flows and create pollution free environment. The experience of China, America, Japan and other mighty countries shows that their success is emanated from effective utilization of water bodies for agriculture, fishery, tourism and manufacturing sector. Fumio Shimizu, Japans Ambassador to the African Union has also suggests that Africans have to alleviate unemployment and limitation of innovation through extremely investing on human resource development.
In this regard, providing due attention for water based development will have countless advantages to resist natural disaster and build sustainable blue economy. Statesmen across the continent are needed equip the youth section of the society with adequate knowledge, skill and ethics to exploit abundant water resources. Thus, Africans are urgently urged to highly finance on human resource development. He further exemplified that the fundamental cause of Japans humiliation after the end of World War II was, a more advanced technology and manpower its opponents possessed.
Eventually, the Japans realized the importance of skilled manpower and began highly invest on the sector. As a result, they have traveled 70 years of successful journey being one of the forefront economies and part and parcel of invention in the world. Besides, the mystery that enable Japan to withstand earth-quake and flooding, natural disasters frequently threatening the country, is the emphasis given to human resource development.
Doctor Shumet Gizaw, State Minister at the Ministry of Technology and Innovation on his part said that Ethiopia is aspiring to develop its urban water resources and create huge job opportunity for rapidly growing youth population through equipping them with the necessary skill, knowledge and technological capabilities. Investing on urban water bodies also has paramount importance to ensure food security, eradicate poverty and develop tourism. Along with an integrated water development, pursuing well trained and skilled man power that can wisely consume the resource is also essential. To happen this, the government is striving to build versatile youth providing vocational training, he added.
The Ethiopian Herald May 23/2019
BY LAKACHEW ATINAFU
