the costs and benefits of water buffering

More documents

Recommendations

Info

EndorsementI wholeheartedly endorse the message of this book. At the behest of the President the 3N “NigeriensFeeding Nigeriens” initiative has been set up in Niger. The vision is in its title.Niger, which lies almost entirely within the Sahel and Sahara climatic belts, about 5.5 million are atrisk of hunger this year. But, regardless the current situation, Niger has regularly suffered food crises,and sometimes severe famine. The northern half of the country is desert, while the south lies in theSahelian belt, where rains fall for only a few months (3-4 months) each year and frequently fail. Nationalproduction of essential food crops and livestock is inevitably subject to large fluctuations from year toyear. With the population rising fast, food insecurity has become a fact of life, an estimated two millionpersons are chronically food insecure and unable to meet basic food requirements even under normalcondition. The situation of children is of particular concern. One in five never reaches the age of five. Ratesof acute malnutrition are consistently ranked above 10% and chronic malnutrition is also significantlyabove the 40% ‘critical’ threshold, affecting 51% of children nationwide, and exceeding 60% in someareas.This is painful as in the past Niger was able to feed itself. Although Niger is a Sahelian country withaverage per capita income among the lowest in the world, we believe that Niger can achieve foodsecurity and eradicate malnutrition because Niger does have cards to play. Even now our potential tostore and utilize our water resources is poorly mobilized. In Niger 1% of the surface water and 20% ofthe groundwater flow are used. The irrigation potential is also largely untapped and there are manyopportunities to make better use of storing, retaining and using water in natural depression, ponds andby other means. This needs to change. The massive regreening initiated by farmers in large part of thecountry and the successful extensive use of zai planting pits and stone bunds emphasizes that changeis possible. Our livestock represents formidable wealth – if the natural resource system that sustains itis taken care off. Niger has a diversity of bioclimatic and agro-ecological zones that are an importantasset to be exploited, through an intelligent local planning. Last but not the least, Niger pending poweris increasing, because of the rise in global demand for Niger’s uranium and because it has now startedcommercial production of oil, serving national needs and West African markets.The 3N initiative “Les Nigériens Nourrissent les Nigériens” launched this year by the democraticallyelected President Mr Issoufou Mahamadou, is a vision, a political will and a commitment to quicklyreach sustainable food security for Niger and build its people’s resilience to shocks and crisis. Under the3N initiative the aim is to harness and use the local water resources – by developing a large numberof irrigation systems and water harvesting structures, by developing better grain storage and developslaughterhouses, by improve agricultural training and boosting agricultural credit (to give farmersand pastoralists a financial buffer), introducing new crops (with high nutritious value) and improvingagricultural research. We hope for a larger role of the private sector and think that this is possible as thereis enough business in better agriculture. A checklist of targets for development provision has been set atnational level, but the underlying goal is to stimulate a pro-active local culture of development planningand implementation, in the belief that this will increase the chances that projects and initiatives willbe sustained over the longer term. The 3N strategy aims to ensure there is a basic development “kit” orchecklist of possessions, structures, equipment and services at every level of society locally.We welcome this book, because water control (irrigation, water harvesting, in situ water managementetc.) at the household and village levels is at the heart of 3N strategy. The many examples – such as theflood water spreading that is practised in Niger itself – show that there are still many things that can bedone. The book also shows the sound financial case of developing small water resources. We support themessage of the book that water buffering is a way out of food insecurity and into resilience in the face ofdry and wet cycles.Amadou Allahoury DialloHaut Commissaire à l’Initiative 3N“Les Nigériens Nourrissent les Nigériens”Présidence de la République du Nigeriv
Page 2 and 3: Profit from StorageThe costs and be
Page 6 and 7: Profit from StorageThe costs and be
Page 9 and 10: 1. Profit from storage: strongerres
Page 11 and 12: Box 2: 3R = Recharge, Retention and
Page 13 and 14: 2 Buffering2.1 The 3R concept“Not
Page 15 and 16: Groundwater storageSoil moisture st
Page 17 and 18: Figure 5. Infographic showing 3R ap
Page 19 and 20: A slightly different 3R technology
Page 21 and 22: Table 2. Summary of typical benefit
Page 23 and 24: The amount of water that infiltrate
Page 25 and 26: 2.3.3 Storing in closed tanks and c
Page 27 and 28: was obtained from water vendors. Ot
Page 29 and 30: eservoirs have a significant impact
Page 31 and 32: 3 Reaching scale3.1 Different route
Page 33 and 34: Figure 11. Several routes of reachi
Page 35 and 36: Before implementation can start, th
Page 37 and 38: Figure 13. Overview of costs and be
Page 39 and 40: Figure 14. Most important benefits
Page 41 and 42: these different values in an abnorm
Page 43 and 44: Box 11: Important risks in assessin
Page 45 and 46: 5 CasesThe 3R methods which are des
Page 47 and 48: 5.1 Sand storage damsKitui, KenyaA1
Page 49 and 50: available for agricultural activiti
Page 51 and 52: 5.2 Check dams in forestsPasak Ngam
Page 53 and 54: ••Bamboo weir. Bamboo sticks (a
Page 55:
important, villagers take turns eve
Page 58 and 59:
Where is it applied?Karezes are com
Page 60 and 61:
Table 8. Crop yields of the improve
Page 62 and 63:
The best of these options was found
Page 64 and 65:
declared as a Water Management Area
Page 66 and 67:
Figure 26. Site locationFigure 27.
Page 68 and 69:
Table 10. Capitalized costs per m 3
Page 71 and 72:
5.6 Freshwater storage inareas with
Page 73 and 74:
Table 12. Benefits of the tajamar G
Page 75 and 76:
5.7 Fresh water conservationwith co
Page 77 and 78:
Where is it applied?Controlled drai
Page 79 and 80:
5.8 Recharge and soil fertilitywith
Page 81 and 82:
Similar results can be seen in othe
Page 83 and 84:
5.9 Greening semi-aridlandscapes -
Page 85 and 86:
Prior to the rehabilitation, it was
Page 87 and 88:
5.10 Biodegradable plastic32mulches
Page 89 and 90:
Drip irrigation is widely used in c
Page 91:
Depending on its thickness and use,
Page 94 and 95:
Costs and benefitsThe benefits of t
Page 96 and 97:
ImplementationFrom 2009 to 2011, 56
Page 99 and 100:
5.12 Surface water harvestingtanksA
Page 101 and 102:
Costs and benefitsThe tank allows d
Page 103:
Table 20. Identified problems and p
Page 106 and 107:
The other reservoirs are located so
Page 108 and 109:
ImplementationAn important element
Page 110 and 111:
such as sprinklers, piped, and drip
Page 112 and 113:
Micro finance is an important compo
Page 114 and 115:
6 Concluding remarksThe image on th
Page 116 and 117:
RetentionmethodC. Closed tankstorag
Page 118 and 119:
Figure A2.2 Landscape (a) and discu
Page 120 and 121:
# Cases8 Recharge and soilfertility
Page 122:
UsagesWetlandsLivestockFisheriesEco
show all

the costs and benefits of water buffering

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?