Africa, for one, curtailed church's control of water (10)
I believe the answer is:
continence
'control of water' is the definition.
(continence is the control of urination or 'water')
'africa for one curtailed church's' is the wordplay.
'africa for one' becomes 'continent' (africa is a kind of continent).
'curtailed' means to remove the last letter.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'continent' with its final letter taken away is 'continen'.
'continen'+'ce'='CONTINENCE'
(Another definition for continence that I've seen is " Self-restraint".)