Academic heritage fair pushes African solutions to water crisis
The future of Africa may well depend on a resource many take for granted every day, water.
This powerful message echoed throughout the 2026 edition of the African Academic Heritage Fair (AAHF), organised by the Association of African Universities (AAU) through AAU TV on May 25, 2026 in commemoration of the African Union Day.
Held on the theme “Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of Agenda 2063,” the event brought together academics, students, policymakers, development institutions, industry leaders and members of the African diaspora to confront one of the continent’s most pressing development challenges, water security and sanitation.
Far from being just another academic gathering, the fair became a continental call to action.
Opening the event, Director of Special Programmes at the AAU, Dr Sylvia Mkandawire, challenged participants to move beyond dialogue and embrace actionable solutions.
“History will not only remember the challenges we faced,” she said. “It will remember how we chose to respond to them through innovation, collaboration and African-led solutions.”
Her remarks captured the spirit of the day: a belief that Africa’s universities must evolve from institutions that merely issue degrees into active laboratories for transformation.
The discussions that followed painted a sobering picture of the continent’s water crisis.
Research impact
The Director of Research Impact of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Professor Kehinde Ogunjobi, revealed that more than 400 million Africans still lacked access to safely managed drinking water, while over 700 million people lived without basic sanitation services.
He warned that climate change, rapid urbanisation, illegal mining and weak infrastructure are worsening water insecurity across the continent.
Joining virtually from the United States, the Founder and Chairman of the Centre for Global Africa, Prof. Ezrah Aharone, argued that water security was ultimately an issue of African sovereignty.
“Civilisations rise where water systems thrive,” he noted. “And societies decline when those systems fail.”
He stressed that solutions imposed externally often fail to last, insisting that Africa’s water future must be shaped through African ownership, African innovation and African application.
