Science in Africa
Emerging Water Management Issues

Introduction

Many challenges continue to face the nations forming the western bulge of Africa. Some of the primary difficulties include limited physical resources, a long cycle of inadequate rainfall, a rapidly growing population, and stagnant economies. Complex challenges such as these dictate a critical need to manage and conserve West African resources properly. In addition to protecting their resources, West Africans also must take care to avoid further degradation of their biophysical riches. It is impossible to examine freshwater ecosystems and their management in West Africa without examining direct human needs. At the 1992 International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin, four guiding principles set out the recommendations at local, national, and international levels; these guiding principles are especially valid for the sub-region. The principles are:

• Freshwater is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development, and the environment;
• Water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners, and policymakers at all levels;
• Women play a central part in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water; and
• Water has an economic value in all its competing uses, and should be recognized as an economic good.

These principals should be the basis for freshwater ecosystem management in the sub-region.

It must be pointed out that compared to the rest of Africa, West Africa currently has adequate water resources. A "water stress index," based on the approximate minimum amount of water per person necessary to maintain an adequate quality of life in a moderately arid zone, was developed by Falkenmark (1989). The index established that about 100 liters per day, or 36.5 cubic meters per year, is the minimum per person requirement for good health, and that roughly 5 to 20 times this amount satisfies the requirements of agriculture, industry, and energy production. Hydrologists designate water-scarce countries as those with an annual fresh water availability of less than 1,000 cubic meters per person per year, and water-stressed countries as those with an annual fresh water availability of 1,000 to 1,667 cubic meters per person per year. Nine African countries are in the water-scarce category, four are in the water-stressed category, and at least six are at the brink of the water-stressed category. All West African countries are deemed to have adequate water resources. If there is generally sufficient water, the problems facing West Africa must lie in the realm of management.

Baskerville (1997) has cast doubt on the credibility of ecological science in terms of informing management decisions by pointing out that replacing "bad" practices with presumed "good" practices on ecological grounds too frequently results in even more damage to the system, no learning on system dynamics, and loss of credibility by management. Boothroyd (1978) defines management as "articulate intervention," with emphasis on reflection before action. The reflection is on how the systems are structured, how they function, and how they will respond to intervention. Baskerville (1997) also holds that there is no shortage of research on the hot ecological topics of resource management. This observation may be true in the developed world, but in the case of West Africa much basic research needs to be carried out. This is not to say that management interventions should be put on hold until "sufficient" research is carried out. Given the size of the sub-region and the problems present, the issue of spatial and temporal scales must also be taken into account for management.

This paper seeks to provide an overview of the freshwater resources and ecosystems of West Africa, to highlight some of the key issues and threats facing these systems, and to provide some new ways of looking at the problems that face the sub-region.

Freshwater Ecosystems of West Africa

Before going further into the issue of resource management, it is useful to consider what freshwater systems exist in the sub-region. West Africa has a number of lakes and reservoirs and many rivers and wetlands; descriptive accounts of the region can be found, for example, in Beadle (1981). The following summary divides West Africa into two broad physiographic regions with a boundary in an approximate east-west direction at roughly 12^oN. In the north is a sedimentary plain and to the south is a series of highlands separated from each other and from the coast. These hills and plateaus divide those rivers that flow south directly into the Gulf of Guinea from those that flow northwards for at least part of their course. The rivers in this area are fast flowing through narrow gorges, with many rapids and small waterfalls. Where these rivers enter low-lying areas or flood plains, the main channel can divide into a braided watercourse with many semi-permanent islands. The flood plains support extensive fisheries. Although the rivers have seasonal pulses of floodwater, most of them have been impounded to form reservoir-type rivers, including 18 projects in the Senegal basin, over 40 in the Niger basin, 20 in the Volta basin, and over 50 in the Chad basin. These profound hydrological changes result in far reaching limnological changes as well.

Flood regimes of the rivers differ from north to south within the region. In the north, the run-off tends to be concentrated into a few floods in August and September, while in the south it is more likely to be spread throughout the year. Many of the streams are temporary, running for only a few months out of the year.

Key Water Issues

Several issues are central to water and ecosystem management in the sub-region. These include:

• Integrated water resources management and use (water laws; water rights; institutional structures; planning, management, and decisionmaking processes; access to drinking water and sanitary services, especially in urban areas; natural hazards; and transboundary conflicts);
• Economic and legal policies to support sustainable development (management of water demands through pricing and incentives for conservation; valuation of water and water-related services; and economic impacts of pollution and resource over-exploitation);
• Access to technology and participation in decisionmaking (legal and administrative instruments that enable direct involvement of water users, government, and other stakeholders in water planning, development, and management);
• Strategies for financing and investing in water resources (water resources development projects; non-structural measures; and improvements in water resources management); and
• Access to information and technology to improve the management of water resources (mechanisms for sharing information, water technology, and management experiences between organizations and countries; promotion of appropriate technologies that support sustainable development; and public education and training).

Threats

The increasing stress on Africa's freshwater resources is the result of natural and human causes. Rapid population growth, pollution from pesticides and fertilizers, and industrial effluent all contribute to Africa's water stress. Another cause of stress is environmental degradation. Forests, which serve as important water catchment areas, are being cleared for fuel wood, lumber, and agriculture. Existing agricultural land is being degraded by soil erosion and devegetation. Perhaps the most important threat facing freshwater systems in the sub-region, apart from climatic change, are the numerous hydro-development projects that have been constructed in the area. These projects range from small farm dams to multimillion dollar constructions such as the Akosombo Dam on the Volta River, which formed the world's largest man-made lake. The effects of such schemes include but are not limited to:

• Loss of habitats;
• Obstruction of fish and wildlife migration;
• Deforestation;
• Salinization and acidification of soils;
• Obstruction of nomadic pathways;
• Loss of local control over natural resources; and
• Loss of fisheries, crop and pasture land, and forest resources.

Table 1 (Finlayson et al, in press) presents a summary of major threats to wetlands, according to a participatory appraisal of wetland managers of five Ramsar sites in Ghana (wetlands sites deemed to be of international importance according to criteria established at the 1971 Ramsar Convention in Iran). Participants were asked to list the threats to each of their sites and then to rank them in order of importance; overall they ranked changes in water regime as the most important threat in all their sites.

Potential Management Approaches

GAP Analysis

The Geographic Approach to Planning (GAP) for biological diversity is a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) based tool used by terrestrial natural resource managers. GAP analysis aims to provide focus and direction for anticipatory, rather than reactive, land management at the community and landscape levels. One of the most important uses of the GAP analysis process is to provide an overview of the distribution and management status of selected components of biodiversity (e.g., wetland types). GAP analysis can be used to identify vegetation types and species that are not adequately represented in a current network of conservation areas.

It is intuitively appealing to conserve biodiversity by maintaining examples of all natural community types, but is unlikely ever to be tested empirically. Furthermore, the spatial scale at which organisms use the environment differs tremendously among species and depends on body size, food habits, mobility, and other factors. Hence, biodiversity protection cannot wholly rely upon a coarse filter like GAP analysis.

Global Thinking, Local Action

Mohrmann (1992) points out that in the field of environmental planning there is an increasing tendency for the principle of centralized concentration to be replaced or complemented by support for endogenous development processes in peripheral areas. In many cases local people feel uncomfortable about approaches made by government departments and representatives. In these situations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can play a very important role. Most NGOs aim to empower local communities, rather than to establish large-scale projects. In order to be successful, projects involving civil society require an enabling environment to strengthen the delicate tissues of social relations. Traditional local management of resources is a viable force for conservation . In many cases, indigenous empirical knowledge gained over generations has served to allow the sustainable use of resources. This fact has often been ignored by project planners and management. Indigenous knowledge must be collected and documented. Unfortunately many of the natural systems of which local people had gained invaluable knowledge have been irreversibly changed by modern man's intervention.

Education

It must be stated that if freshwater systems are to survive as we know currently know them, steps should be taken to educate people at all levels on their true value; these systems are too often taken for granted or undervalued by local policymakers. At the 1992 "Earth Summit" in Rio many very helpful principles were established. Unfortunately they have not been distributed widely enough to have impact at the grassroots level. Governments have a role in accessing and disseminating information, and in encouraging local people to manage their own resources. Efforts must be focused on educating children, so that conservation will become part of their culture again.

Recommendations

It is recommended that countries in the sub-region endeavor to:

• Identify surface and ground water resources that could be developed for use on a sustainable basis, and simultaneously to initiate programs for the protection, conservation, and rational use of these resources;
• Initiate effective water pollution prevention and control programs based on an appropriate mixture of pollution reduction-at-source strategies, environmental impact assessments, and enforceable standards for major point-source discharges and high-risk non-point sources, commensurate with socioeconomic development;
• Participate, as far as appropriate, in international water-quality monitoring and management programs, such as the Global Water Quality Monitoring Programme (GEMS/WATER), the UNEP Environmentally Sound Management of Inland Waters (EMINWA), the FAO Regional Inland Fishery Bodies, and the Ramsar Convention;
• Reduce the prevalence of water-associated diseases, starting with the eradication of dracunculiasis (guinea worm disease) and onchocerciasis (river blindness) by the year 2000;
• Establish, according to capacities and needs, biological, health, physical, and chemical quality criteria for all water bodies (surface and ground) to be attained and/or maintained, with a view to an ongoing improvement of water quality;
• Adopt an integrated approach to environmentally sustainable management of water resources, including the protection of aquatic ecosystems and freshwater living resources; and
• Implement strategies for the environmentally sound management of fresh waters and related coastal ecosystems, including consideration of fisheries, aquaculture, animal grazing, agricultural activities, and biodiversity.

It is further recommended that Ackerman's (1997) principles of water management for people and the environment should be followed, i.e., (i) value water; (ii) use water sustainably; (iii) develop suitable institutions to manage water; (iv) collect and disseminate information; (v) maintain a social and cultural perspective; (vi) ensure equitable access to water; (vii) use appropriate technology; (viii) solve causes not symptoms; (ix) take an ecosystem approach; and (x) work as multidisciplinary teams.

To end on a note of optimism, consider the disasters facing African farmers in the 1970s and 1980s. At that time farmers were destroying their soils, and famine was a semi-permanent state, linked with the droughts. Pearce (1997) cites various researchers who have noted that rather than following a downward spiral of environmental destruction, many regions have recovered because of the ingenuity of the farmers: "African farmers are resourceful, knowledgeable, marketwise, innovative, and able to transform their environments and lives for the better." This statement is certainly also true of the people who live around the wetlands, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs of West Africa.

References

Ackerman, M., 1997. Principles of water management for people and the environment. IUCN Wetlands Programme Newsletter 15:25-29.

Baskerville, G.L. 1997. Advocacy, science, policy, and life in the real world. Conservation Ecology 1(1):9.

Beadle, L.C., ed., 1981. Inland Waters of Tropical Africa. New York: Longman.

Boothroyd, H. 1978. Articulate Intervention. London: Taylor and Francis.

Falkenmark, M., 1989. The massive water shortage in africa: why isn't it being addressed? Ambio. 18(2):112-18.

Finlayson, C.M., Ntiamoa-Baidu, Y., and Gordon, C., in press. A Participatory Approach to Developing a Monitoring Programme for Ghana's Coastal Wetlands. Accra: Ghana Coastal Wetland Management Project.

Mohrmann, J.C.J., 1992. New approaches for environmental management. Development 2:17-21.

Pearce, F., 1997. The real green revolution. New Scientist 155(2112):53