Transboundary management : Niger River Basin

Hello ! 

Through the past months, I think I have made a point about how important it is to manage correctly any water resources in Western Africa, with examples in different countries of the area. 

But what about the resources that go beyond a country's boundaries ? 

(The Niger River) (gemstat.org)

I was reading about this on a blog of another student from my class, about Water and Environmental Change. The post was quoting Goulden et Al. (2009), about the fact that the good management of a basin depends on “the different economic resources, social vulnerability, institutional arrangements and levels of inequality within the basin”. Indeed, it is easy to understand why a country in a particularly weak position (poor, at war, corrupted) but located upstream would take the maximum of the resources, or pollute the resource because they are unable to manage their waste. But this kind of behavior can lead to serious issues such as water wars. 

How can a group of countries manage a basin in a sustainable and coordinated way ?

These requirements are a priori met in the case of the Niger River Basin. This river of 4200km is the third longest river of Africa, and runs through Niger, Benin, Chad, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon and Burkina Faso. It is a very crucial basin because of its flow (180km3 a year) but mostly because of the 100 million people living in the basin.

(Map of the Niger River Basin) (slideplayer.com)

So with these stakes, how can nine countries co-manage this basin ? While Mali owns 30% of the basin, Niger 23% and Nigeria represents 80% of the inhabitants of the basin, it seems that they should be the main countries to make choices about the resources management. In addition to this, the river goes through 6 geographic regions, which creates advantages and drawbacks depending on the country. As described in the Water P. Notes (October 2008), and as shown on the map below, the six regions present the following characteristics :

- Upper Niger River Basin & Bani Watershed : owns an extensive tributary network, but the flows are extreme depending on which season;

- Inland Delta & Lake District : a lot of lakes on each side of the river and a delta resulting of the discharges from the upstream region;

- Middle Niger Right and Left Bands : in this region, tributaries from Mali, Burkina Faso and Benin join the Niger, and it experience two high water discharges (one in September from tributaries from Burkina Faso, from the rainy season, and the second in December, the delayed floods from upstream);

- Benue River : adds a major tributary from high altitude in Cameroon;

- Lower Niger River and Niger Delta : high rainfall, lagoons, channels...;

(Regions in the Niger River Basin) (from "The River Niger water availability: Facing future needs and climate change")

These particularities create some inequalities : while the human activities are easier in open areas (such as lakes and deltas), the Niger and Inland Delta zones will be advantage. For the agriculture, the Inland Delta region, with its lakes, can stock water and thus regulate flows to prevent floods, and the lands around the delta are made fertile by the water. Meanwhile, the Middle Right & Left Bands are exposed to floods because of the two annual high flows they receive, avoiding any agriculture. 

(The Inland Delta; a green spot in the middle of the desert, thanks to the delta and lake's water) (writework.com)

A matter that interest us more here, is the groundwater situation : because it depends on the rainfall and the permeability of the ground, it will vary with the regions : the Upper Basin, despite the high flows, gets a little groundwater because of the soil impermeability and the rainfall extreme variability, while the Inland Delta has a lot of groundwater thanks to the soil permeability caused by the presence of the delta and lakes. The pollution situation, caused by the creation of cities around the basin, is also an issue for countries downstream : the absence of waste treatment plan, Bamako industries rejecting their waste in the river, the use of fertilizer mainly in the Inland Delta zone, the exploitation of minerals... All of this could result in big tensions between the nine countries. 

(Pollution in Niger)(deepoceanfacts.com)

But the leaders somewhat decided that the best way to avoid conflict was to cooperate and act altogether. Because they are among the poorest countries in the world, they should cooperate to help each other out, in way to produce more, in a sustainable way, and to equally divide the resource in way to all be able to develop.

That is why they created the Niger Basin Authority (NBA). They started to agree on some terms after the colonial area, in 1963 with the creation of the Niger River Commission of 1964. It was replaced by the NBA in 1980, and all the agreements and objectives were set in the Water Charter in 2008. The members of NBA are ministers from each states, reporting to the heads of State. The NBA, as an international corporation, has to be autonomous and sustainable : the countries all have to commit the same amount of money, and some international organizations also finance it, such as the World Bank.

I summed up the NBA characteristics and objectives in this infography, from the information I found here.

This system, based on the communication between an autonomous office and the member States, and the respect of the Water Charter, agreed by everyone, seems to be efficient, since they started to work on common projects, such as irrigation systems.

Now, I would like to know if any of you know other cases of transboundary water management in Africa, and if the governance system looks like this one! If not, how the NRB management could be more efficient based on other examples!

Let me know in the comments!