Countries in Africa by water stress

Countries in Africa by water stress, World Bank, 2022

#	Country	% of available water	Region
1	Libya	817.1%	Northern Africa
2	Algeria	144.8%	Northern Africa
3	Egypt	141.2%	Northern Africa
4	Sudan	118.7%	Northern Africa
5	Tunisia	98.1%	Northern Africa
6	Eswatini	77.6%	Southern Africa
7	South Africa	67.6%	Southern Africa
8	Cabo Verde	59.7%	Western Africa
9	Morocco	50.8%	Northern Africa
10	Zimbabwe	46.1%	Eastern Africa
11	Kenya	33.2%	Eastern Africa
12	Ethiopia	32.3%	Eastern Africa
13	Somalia	24.5%	Eastern Africa
14	Mauritius	23.0%	Eastern Africa
15	Rwanda	20.2%	Eastern Africa
16	Malawi	17.5%	Eastern Africa
17	Senegal	16.3%	Western Africa
18	Mauritania	13.2%	Western Africa
19	Tanzania	13.0%	Eastern Africa
20	Madagascar	11.3%	Eastern Africa
21	Eritrea	11.2%	Eastern Africa
22	Niger	11.0%	Western Africa
23	Burundi	10.2%	Eastern Africa
24	Nigeria	9.7%	Western Africa
25	Mali	8.0%	Western Africa
26	Burkina Faso	7.8%	Western Africa
=27	Djibouti	6.3%	Eastern Africa
=27	Ghana	6.3%	Western Africa
29	Uganda	5.8%	Eastern Africa
30	Côte d'Ivoire	5.1%	Western Africa
31	Chad	4.3%	Middle Africa
32	South Sudan	4.2%	Eastern Africa
33	Togo	3.4%	Western Africa
34	Zambia	2.8%	Eastern Africa
35	Lesotho	2.6%	Southern Africa
=36	Botswana	2.2%	Southern Africa
=36	Gambia	2.2%	Western Africa
=38	Angola	1.9%	Middle Africa
=38	São Tomé and Principe	1.9%	Middle Africa
40	Mozambique	1.8%	Eastern Africa
41	Cameroon	1.6%	Middle Africa
42	Guinea-Bissau	1.5%	Western Africa
43	Guinea	1.4%	Western Africa
44	Benin	1.0%	Western Africa
45	Comoros	0.8%	Eastern Africa
=46	Gabon	0.5%	Middle Africa
=46	Sierra Leone	0.5%	Western Africa
=48	Central African Republic	0.3%	Middle Africa
=48	Liberia	0.3%	Western Africa
=48	Namibia	0.3%	Southern Africa
=51	DR Congo	0.2%	Middle Africa
=51	Equatorial Guinea	0.2%	Middle Africa
53	Congo	0.0%	Middle Africa

No World Bank figure for Seychelles.

Questions

Which country in Africa has the most water stress?

Libya has the most water stress in Africa: 817.1% of its available fresh water (2022). Next come Algeria (144.8% of its available fresh water) and Egypt (141.2% of its available fresh water).

Which country in Africa has the least water stress?

The Congo, with 0.0% of its available fresh water (2022).

What is the typical water stress of a country in Africa?

The median of the 53 countries in Africa is 6.3% of its available fresh water: half are above it, half below. The median, not the average, because a few countries at the top would drag an average far above almost everyone.

Where do the figures come from?

Fresh water taken for farms, industry and homes, as a share of the fresh water available after nature’s own needs. Past 100%, a country draws down groundwater or desalinates. Source: World Bank, 2022. Only independent states are ranked; territories are listed separately. A country’s continent follows Natural Earth; the handful of island states it files under the open ocean are placed by their UN subregion.

Source: World Bank (CC BY 4.0). Figures more than 5 years older than the newest are left out rather than shown beside current ones. Countries sharing a value share a rank. All sources.