Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

4 5 6 / P I L O T C A S E S T U D I E S : A F O C U S O N R E A L - W O R L D E X A M P L E SSenegal River Basin, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, SenegalNovember 2000 to create a network of all of the producers/possessorsof thematic data and hook them up to a general database that wouldbe managed by the Observatory’s Coordination Bureau. Agreementprotocols will soon be drawn up by these organizations and the OMVSto formally define the roles and responsibilities of each of the actors inthe data collection, processing and storage procedures, on the onehand, and data development, dissemination and sharing, on the other.Challenges to Life and Well-BeingA difficult contextBefore the dams were filled in the mid-1980s, activities of the localinhabitants depended directly on rainfall (rain crops) or on floods(flood recession crops), in particular in the upper basin in Guinea(Fouta Djallon Mountains). But the dramatic and continuous drop inrainfall during the 1960s and 1970s led to the degradation of almostthe entire base of natural resources (soil erosion, disappearance ofvegetation, drying up of surface water, salinity 200 km upstream fromthe mouth of the river, drop in the groundwater level, degradationand disappearance of pasture land). Under these conditions, the localinhabitants could not produce enough to survive and the onlyalternative was emigration. Each year, a large percentage of thepopulation, in particular young people, left the valley and the deltafor capital cities in the subregion (Abidjan, Bamako, Dakar, Libreville,Nouakchott) or Europe (usually France or Italy).The filling of damsIn response to these difficulties, a dam-building project wasimplemented, in order to partially or totally control river flow and,consequently, enable the development of large areas of land foragriculture to contribute to food security. In addition, the dams builtto regulate flow could also be used for hydroelectric power plants,to solve the problem of the low supply and high cost of electricity,and to maintain a sufficient flow depth in the river for fluviomaritimenavigation to relieve Mali’s isolation by giving it access tothe Atlantic Ocean and lower the cost of transporting heavy goods(making it possible to exploit the basin’s mineral resources). It is inthis context that the OMVS programme was created.After the dams were filled, sufficient quantities of water becameavailable year-round, enabling local inhabitants to engage in varioushighly profitable activities. These new opportunities incited the youngmen who had left to try their luck elsewhere, without much success,to return home. People from the agrobusiness world also begancoming into the area to invest in channels to market or to createsmall factories to transform the crops grown in the valley and delta.Preliminary studies showed that the irrigation system would reestablishthe basis of profitable production. Flow regularization wouldguarantee a minimum discharge of 300 m 3 /s at Bakel (reference station),and the storage capacity of the Manantali and Diama dams and theGuiers and Rkiz Lakes could be used to irrigate a surface area of375,000 hectares, three times the surface area cultivated before 1986.Unfortunately, this initial enthusiasm diminished when, betweenthe sixth and tenth year after the dams were filled, new problemsarose. Two in particular, the degradation of ecosystems and theproliferation of water-borne diseases, very rapidly reached severeendemic proportions. These problems are described in detail furtheron in this chapter.Management Challenges:Stewardship and GovernanceThe OMVS river basin organization was established about threedecades ago by three out of the four riparian states. Mali’s principalinterests are the maintenance of river levels so as to obtain navigableaccess to the sea and energy produced by the Manantali dam.Mauritanian and Senegalese interests converge in power productionand irrigation, while Senegal seeks improved livelihoods for localpopulations. These varied interests are typical of a transboundarywater management situation. The Manantali dam, although located inMali, belongs to all the members of the OMVS authority.Legal and regulatory framework and governanceThe first institutions to develop the Senegal River valley were createdduring the colonial period. On 25 July 1963, very soon afterindependence, Guinea, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal signed theBamako Convention for the Development of the Senegal River Basin.This convention declared the Senegal River to be an ‘InternationalRiver’ and created an ‘Interstate Committee’ to oversee itsdevelopment. The Bamako Convention was supplemented by theDakar Convention, signed on 7 February 1964, concerning the statusof the Senegal River. The Interstate Committee laid the foundation forsubregional cooperation in development of the Senegal River basin.On 26 May 1968, the Labé Convention created the Organization ofBoundary States of the Senegal River (OERS, Organisation des EtatsRiverains du Sénégal) to replace the Interstate Committee, broadeningthe field of subregional cooperation. Indeed, OERS objectives werenot limited to the valorization of the basin but aimed at the economicand political integration of its four member states. After Guineawithdrew from the OERS, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal decided, in1972, to set up the OMVS, which pursues the same objectives.The OMVS has since created a flexible and functional legalframework enabling collaboration and a co-management of the basin.The principal legal texts governing OMVS are: