Yet it has been difficult simply to get water on the agenda despite the fact that it has systemic effects throughout societies, economies and ecologies.

In part that is because the focus has been on mitigation, reducing the size of the problem by curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Yet even in mitigation, the potential contribution that water and its management can make has been downplayed. Hydropower, generated by allowing rivers to drive turbines and generate electricity, is one of the oldest and most reliable forms of solar energy – it is the sun’s energy that drives the cycle of evaporation, rainfall and river flow that makes hydropower such a reliable source.

But “big” hydropower was until recently not even considered to be a source of renewable energy because of its potential social and environmental impacts. I suggest that these have been exaggerated.

 The rich countries that already use most of their own hydropower potential have systematically blocked Africa’s efforts to do the same, even though currently less than 5% of Africa’s potential is being exploited. Through these spoiling actions, environmentalists scored a massive own goal, creating the conditions in which there was no alternative for South Africa but to build two new coal-fired power stations.

If countries like Mozambique, Zambia, Angola and the DRC had been helped to produce proposals for their hydropower resources earlier, they could have supplied clean power instead. And they would have greatly advanced equitable regional integration and development as well.

Trade interests are also important. Europe sees its expensive wind and solar technologies as an important export sector but China has emerged as the leading supporter of African power development, investing in basic hydropower in which it is a technology leader. Now European construction companies are demanding a share of Africa’s hydropower market that their governments had previously blocked.

This highlights how many dimensions of the climate debate are driven by larger agendas in which environmental protection and trade interests come first and Africa’s needs and interests come a distant second. As a result, we are already missing opportunities to address climate change mitigation as well as to strengthen our adaptation response.

There has been some progress to this end. Water has now been included as part of the Nairobi Work Programme on Adaptation. But as we negotiate the funding for a climate transition, it is important to ensure that the design of adaptation and mitigation finance mechanisms are determined by Africa and guided by Africa’s needs.

Dealing with water, what is needed is not expensive new technologies but support for basic management to measure water availability, monitor its use and administer allocations. Support is also needed for investments in infrastructure to store and transport water so that countries can reduce the uncertainty of supply, and cope with more intense floods and droughts.

The danger is that such activities will be labelled as “normal development” and thus not eligible for adaptation even though governments, faced with competition from many other sectors, currently seriously underinvest in water management. This is why organisations such as the Global Water Partnership have called for more investment in better water resource management to be recognised as a key adaptation intervention.

There are challenges: Africa’s interests are not homogenous. For many poor countries which are very small emitters of CO2, the opportunity to receive adaptation funding is a carrot that is dangled in front of them. The middle income carbon producers, both South Africa and the oil and gas producers of North Africa have to consider how they will adapt to a future in which their prized climate mineral resource endowments are penalised not rewarded.

While that makes it difficult to develop a coherent common strategy, it is important that Africans do so. Climate change is a threat but also an opportunity to do things differently in the future, in energy production, water management and regional integration, to build a better Africa in a better world.

 Mike Muller is a Commissioner with the South African National Planning Commission and a member of the Global Water Partnership’s Technical Advisory Committee. He was Director General of Water Affairs and Forestry in South Africa from 1997 to 2005.