Water for people.pdf - WHO Thailand Digital Repository

4 6 0 / 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, SenegalThe development of intestinal schistosomiasis demonstrates evenmore clearly the impact of development on the health of theregion. Unknown in Mauritania before the dams were filled, the firstcases were reported in 1993. One year later, a survey showed thatthe population of school children in Rosso had an overall prevalenceof 32.2 percent. In Senegal the situation is even worse, with a44 percent rate of infestation in the Walo flood plain, 72 percent inthe area around Guiers Lake where more than 90 percent of thevillages are affected. In Mali, this form of schistosomiasis is stillpresent in specific areas, with an infestation rate of 3.34 percent in1997, but the situation calls for close monitoring.ConclusionsThe OMVS has demonstrated its effectiveness. It has been tested formore than thirty years now, and was recently improved by theadoption in May 2002 of the Senegal River Water Charter. Thisframework enables a collaborative management approach, witheffective involvement of local actors/stakeholders, recognized andaccepted by all of the riparian states including Guinea, who hassigned cooperation agreements with the OMVS prior to beingreintegrated into the organization.It also establishes the principles and terms of water sharingbetween the different usage sectors, based on the original conceptof ‘water distribution’ among the users and riparian states in whichsharing the water resource is not a matter of withdrawals, butrather one of optimal satisfaction of usage requirements. The OMVSlooks for an equitable managing and distribution of water resourcesamong multicultural ethnic groups who are gathered around theriver basin and its water resources. The new dams and institutionalframework have brought greater prosperity and economic revenueand replaced a situation of water scarcity and conflict among usersas that which prevailed before the 1980s.However, these undeniable achievements cannot hide newdifficulties emerging with the dams’ implementation: displacementof populations, water-borne diseases, proliferation of invasiveaquatic vegetation, degradation of cultivated land and waterpollution are the major issues the basin will have to cope with inthe near future.