The return of the water - IUCN

Economic Justification of Additional Floodplain Re-inundation
• The maximum flood release option generated significantly higher economic benefits, net
present value and added value than the middle and minimum options, even though it was the
most expensive to implement. All of the three re-inundation options showed consistently
positive economic values when discount rates were increased, projected benefits were decreased,
or proposed flooded area was reduced. Even under the “worst case” scenario, where flood
coverage continuously corresponded to a “bad” year, floods failed completely on a regular
basis, and benefits were 15% lower than predicted, all options remained economically desirable.
In addition to the quantified economic value of flood release, there were important non-monetary
economic arguments in favour of re-inundation. Flood release would strengthen, diversify and restore
many elements of the socio-economy of the Waza Logone region, and helped to contribute towards
key economic and development goals of the Government of Cameroon.
• Poverty and vulnerable groups. Some of the most vulnerable groups in the Waza Logone
region (such as women, unemployed, and nomadic pastoralists) rely on floodplain goods
and services for their economic survival. Many of the goods and services provided by the
floodplain are unavailable elsewhere, or unaffordable, for these groups. If floodplain resources
continue to be degraded and lost, these groups stand to suffer the most.
• Food security. The Waza Logone region has only limited production possibilities, contains
a large rural poor population, and faces climatically uncertain conditions. It is chronically
vulnerable to food insecurity. Through providing essential (and sometimes irreplaceable)
support to livestock production, fisheries and agriculture, flooding makes a major contribution
to local food security.
• Sustainable, diverse and stable livelihoods. Regular floods ensure the stability of ecological
and economic systems. Floodplain resources provide a wide range of economic goods and
services that help to diversify local people’s production base and livelihoods, meaning that
they have many sources of fallback and security when particular sources of income and
subsistence fail. Flooding reduces risk in a climatically and economically uncertain region.
Especially, the presence of floods helps to reduce the impacts and severity of drought.
• Future economic growth and prosperity. Floods generate benefits that can be maintained
over the long-term and used to provide for a range of future developments and sources of
growth. This potential for sustained future economic prosperity has been reduced by flood
loss, and some goods and services which are sources of possible future growth have been
diminished or lost irretrievably.
• Multiplier effects. Every economic activity in the floodplain has a multiplier effect — for
example income earned through fish supports many people in addition to the trader himself,
tourism in the Waza National Park supports employment, hotels, restaurants and transport
industries, livestock herds are used as a source of investment and a coping mechanism, and
redistributed between pastoralist households in times of stress. The total economic benefit
of floodplain resources, and the ultimate beneficiary population, is many times greater than
that expressed in the valuation study.
The overall conclusion of this study was that the economic analysis provided strong support for investing
in flood release measures in the Waza Logone region. Implementation of any of the proposed reinundation
options would lead to significant net economic benefits, and could be considered to be
economically desirable over the current situation of reduced floods. On purely economic grounds, it
was recommended that either Option X (generating the highest economic benefits, overall and relative
to costs) or Option Y (the most robust option in the face of risk and uncertainty) should be implemented.
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