IWRA Executive Office

abstract 889

Water resource in West Africa: Potential, usages and prospect

Author(s): Hama Maïga, Bruno Barbier
Hama Maïga (2IE) Bruno Barbier (CIRAD)

Keyword(s): water management, irrigation, hydroelectricity, clean water, sanitation, water policies

Article:
Poster:

Session: Poster session 1

Abstract West Africa displays the worst indicators in terms of water services. Access to clean water and

sanitation, irrigation and power from hydroelectric dams is less developed than anywhere else in the world despite

the progress made during the last decades. Children mortality, closely linked to water quality, is still among the

highest. As irrigated area is insignificant, agriculture is almost completely climate dependant, and the climate is also

the most variable on earth. The hydroelectric potential is still very important, since the potential of the mountains of

Fouta Djalon is almost untapped, while energy costs are the highest in the world. Sanitation networks are rare or

deficient while wetlands, rich in biodiversity are disappearing or increasingly contaminated.
Water use is

becoming an increasingly contentious issue in West Africa and might become a major constraint to economic

development. The combination of rapid population growth, even faster urbanisation and robust economic growth

fuels the demand for better public services. As food security remains a priority, farmers and herders are asking for

more irrigation scheme, wells and boreholes. However competition for water is rife. As oil and natural gas prices are

rising, hydroelectric projects reappear on policy makers’ and donors desks. Where should the money go: drinking

water, food security or electric power?
Proper use of the water resources will require new discussion

between states sharing the major hydrologic basins and the transnational aquifers. The river basin authorities have

become the central place of decision making as well as the ECOWAS sponsored West African Power Pool

particularly concerned by hydroelectric investments.
Hydroelectricity is perceived as a sound alternative to

hydrocarbures, but it will be constrained by climate variability. The ongoing West African power interconnection is

bound to reduce the risk of power shortage but the characteristics of the west African monsoon make rainfall levels

quite covariant. Water flow in the Senegal, Niger and Volta rivers are similar. A major drought means a deficit

everywhere in West Africa. The choice of investments will require sound and sophisticated technical and economic

analysis which will incorporate the calculation of risk of extreme events.
An effort of imagination and

research is also required to improve irrigation, because current methods are expensive, not really cost effective and

fragile. Irrigated rice production displays poor competitiveness in regards to Asian imports and local high value crops

such as vegetable and fruit production which are in full expansion. High value crops display serious problems of

contamination by pesticides. Public concern for water quality will increase as consumers are becoming more

demanding. Clean water for human consumption will require compromise between dams, pumping the aquifers and

maybe desalted water for large coastal cities. A key question is whether cities can afford complex urban sanitation

network based on water. This water will have to come from surface water, better if it is recycled.
Overall

West Africa has a fair potential in water resources, be it surface water or aquifers, to satisfy the growing demand. It

requires new plans to improve its infrastructure. The plans will need to be managed at the ECOWAS level because

the water resources cross boundaries. But African technical and managerial capacities need to be improved to

permit the investment plan to achieve both rapidity and sustainability.

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Water resource in West Africa: Potential, usages and prospect