"Has Africa Run Out of Water?"

You've probably noticed the talk about Cape Town South Africa running out of water has ebbed into the background at the moment.
"Day Zero" has been pushed back to 2019 as the older reservoirs started refilling a month ago and a new reservoir was just tied into the system to add about 10% to reserves. Still though we're only talking 21% of capacity with a decrease in the most recent reporting week.

On the continent as a whole there is one overriding concern. As noted a year ago in:
 IMF: Sub-Saharan Africa has Just Completed One of its Best Decades of Growth--It's Not Enough (UPDATED)

This may be one of the more important graphics you are likely to come across today.

Africa's population is projected by the United Nations to reach 2 billion people by 2045, 4 billion before the end of the century:

via CityLab

And the headline story, from the International Monetary Fund, April 7:
"Structural Transformation in Employment and Productivity What Can Africa Hope For"...

That was a year ago. Here's today's headline story from TEDx: 

Prof. Alan MacDonald leads international groundwater research at the British Geological Survey - currently about 15 projects in 25 countries.

Many people in Africa still lack reliable access to safe water, which affects health, livelihoods and the potential for sustainable growth. Why is this still a problem, given that in other areas, such as mobile phone coverage, Africa is seeing spectacular growth in services? Has the continent run out of water? In this talk, Alan discusses the water available to Africa and explains that the answer is often quite literally under our feet. Prof. Alan MacDonald leads international groundwater research at the British Geological Survey - currently about 15 projects in 25 countries. He started his career in the 1990s working with the UK charity WaterAid helping to develop water supplies from groundwater in rural Nigeria. Since then he has worked extensively across Africa and Asia on water security issues advising governments and NGOs and carrying out academic research with partner universities. He has written several books and many research articles on African groundwater and is currently focussing on the impact of climate change on groundwater and improving the functionality of water supplies. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

TEDx HeriotWattUniversity